


Marvel Rising: Identity crisis

by HeinousKim



Series: HeinousKim - weekly drabbles [5]
Category: Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors (2018), Spider-Gwen (Comics)
Genre: F/F, gwenom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 10:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27469447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeinousKim/pseuds/HeinousKim
Summary: Gwen starts to realize her feelings for their team leader might not be entirely platonic but before she can work up the currage to tell Daisy any of that Murderdock decides to mess with her again, this time using a Symbiote.The story incorporates parts from the Spider-Gwen/Ghost-Spider comics that I like into the Marvel Rising universe, but with a twist to the Gwenom storyline.
Relationships: Background Glory Grant/Mary Jane Watson, Daisy Jhonson /Gwen Stacey, Ghost-Spider/Quake, Gwen Stacey/Daisy Jhonson, Quake/Ghost-Spider
Series: HeinousKim - weekly drabbles [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1796623
Comments: 14
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KoryStarr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoryStarr/gifts), [So_u_like_pkmn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/So_u_like_pkmn/gifts).



> Just want to post a quick apology to Ornfo who had suggested a She-ra prompt for me. I tried to write it, but because it was an angsty prompt and I've never really done angst before I didn't really get far before I got writers block, so instead I'm posting this story I've been working on in the background.

Gwen and her team finally entered their base. She wouldn't say that she was exhausted exactly but they _had_ spent a few hoers trying to beat the shocker. He wasn't robing banks this time, he was holding the city hostage with some big machine he built, which meant a lot more work than just punching the guy out. Riri had clutched it in the end but the real MVP was Daisy, who as always made them all preform at their best.

Before the elevator was done descending Gwen web-slung her way over to the TVand planted herself on the roof with her legs crossed. She web-grabbed one of the game controllers, turned on the system and selected a good game from their library.

Daisy went straight to the ops room, while the others filed into the lounge area.

"Who wants a victory nut-bar?"

Everyone there did, except Rayshaun, who was allergic. When they had all gotten theirs, there was still one left, Daisy's, so Doreen quickly checked with her if she wanted it, but she said no.

"Guess this bar goes to Riri, for saving the day with her wicked computer hacking skills," Doreen said.

"Aww thanks."

"Well you deserve it," Kamala said as she patted her shoulder, "we would have been screwed without you."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Well, I think Doreen might have been able to do it, or maybe America could have smashed it, but sure, she did great."

"She saved the day, Ghost Spider, let her have her moment." _Patriot_ said.It anoyed her a bit whenever he caled her that, since he always said it the way he would when he was scolding her.

"She turned off Shocker's thingy, _Daisy_ saved the day."

"Daisy? What did she do?" Kamala asked.

"Coordinated us, saved Inferno that one time, helped me take down Scorpio, and just generally was the most effective person there. None of you are even close to as good as Daisy."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Rayshaun glared at her like if she'd just insulted his whole extended family.

"Yeah, chika, no offense to Daisy but I'm practically indestructible, I can fly, and I'm the strongest one here."

"Yeah, you're good but you lack experience. Without Daisy leading us you wouldn't be half as useful in the field as you are."

"I have experience," Rayshaun said. "I was even trained by captain America! I'm just as good as her when it comes to strategy."

"But _you_ lack powers. Plus I wouldn't say 'just as good'. You're okay, but there's a reason _she_ was picked as leader." Gwen was already getting an n oyed by the back-talk. like, how could _Rayshaun_ , her former partner, not understand just how awesome Daisy really was.

"Kamala's great too, so is Riri, and me, and let's not forget that time Tippy defeated you." Tippy jumped up on Doreen's shoulder looking far too proud of herself.

"Tippy did not _defeat_ me. I didn't want to hurt her, and even webbing her to a wall could have broken some bones. Plus, she didn't do any damage, just stopped me from leaving." And embarrassed her to no end.

"Hey, don't underestimate me and Tippy!"

Gwen was, at this point, very frustrated. It shouldn't be _that_ big a blow to their ego, after all Daisy was _really_ amazing, but for whatever reason they kept acting like they had something to prove.

"Whatever! Daisy's still just the best, okay. Now I'm going to my band practice, I don't need this shit." She stormed out. Honestly she still had a while before she needed to get going, time she'd planned on using by playing video-games with whoever wanted to join, but she supposed she could kill it by just web-slinging around in the city for a while.

* * *

When Gwen stormed away America could have sworn that if she didn't have her mask on they'd be able to see a faint blush.

"I can't believe that she'd write us all of for lacking experience!" Doreen said.

"I don't know about you guys but she's definitely right to write me off." Dante said.

"What, no. Dante please, don't say things like that." Kamala looked hurt, almost like he'd insulted her, rather than himself. She was adorable, really.

"No, it's true. Whenever we spar she beats me in half a minute flat. And the only reason it isn't ten seconds anymore is because I've gotten better at running from her."

Kamala fussed around him, unsure of how to comfort the red haired boy. "But that's cause your powers aren't good against her. Her super-senses makes your fire-blasts ineffective and her super-strength gives her an edge in close combat. That's all."

"Either way, I don't think Gwen’s attitude was veryconducive to teamwork, maybe we should talk with Daisy about it." Rayshaun suggested,

That, America thought, would be bad. "I don't think that that's necessary, she didn't mean it that way."

"And what way _did_ she mean it then." Ray was being stubborn. "Because if she did mean it the way I think she did, that's a dangerous attitude to have in the field."

"Think about it. First time we met her she wasn't really a fan of this teamwork idea, then she and Daisy teamed up and she changed her tune. It's synergy, that's what she's talking about. Even it she doesn't realize it." She had pulled the excuse out of her ass, but it _sounded_ plausible.

"Synergy?" Dante asked.

"Makes sense," Riri said, letting America breathe a sigh of relief. "Gwen's one of or best fighters, with her battle intuition and a good mid to close range power set, and if she judges our battle capacity in the field by how well we do when we team up with her, thinking Daisy's the best isn't really all that strange.

"With how well they work together even teaming up with America isn't as efficient. Then based on that she concludes that Daisy's the most useful in battle."

"Exactly." America barely understood what Riri just said, but if agreeing meant they'd drop it that was good enough.

"You sure that's all she meant?" Doreen certainly had a knack for seeing through people, and her snooping skills weren't too bad either. If America didn't stop her now, Gwen’s secret might be blown before she's ready.

"Yes, Doreen, that's all there's too it." America wasn't really a master of subtlety, so there was a risk that the others might have realized that something was up, but with the excuse and her threatening tone, she was fairly certain they'd just let it be. For now.

* * *

Ghost spider landed, just a few blocks from where the band usually practiced, in the alleyway where she kept her clothes stashed, pulled on a sweater, some jeans, and a pair of slightly too bigseekers over her super-suit, then made her way to MJ's garage.

"What's going on, tiger?"

"Nothing, MJ." She turned her back to her friend as she pulled off not only her sweater but also the top half of her super-suit, then replaced it with a t-shirt.

"Then why were you smiling like that?"

"I'm wasn't." Gwen steeled her face before turning back around. She hopped onto her chair behind the drum set and picked up the sticks. "Now can we start or what?"

"Betty's not here yet, you're actually early for once." Glory said.

"Oh."

Since she had the time, Gwen decided to read (skill) through some files on various super criminals, including ones she had already had the displeasure of fighting. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files were thorough, but most of it wasn't very useful.

Who needed to know the birthday of the Trapper's daughter? You just had to punch the guy a bit and leave him tied up for the authorities to handle. Same went for most of the villains they had a lot on.

Of course there _were_ exceptions like Arcade, were any detail might help escape his "murder-land", but for most of the threats, the _real_ threats, their long files only really had one or two useful details beside the very basics about their fighting style and training.

Then there were the ones that S.H.I.E.L.D. had next to nothing, those were the ones you couldn't just beat up and leave for the cops, you'd have to actually prove that they were guilty of something.

When Betty walked in she scanned the room then suddenly stopped. Staring at Gwen. "Gwen Stacy what are you doing here already? Don't you have to save the world today?"

"What can I say, been a slow week. Could be that something big is happening soon, tends to be that other villains who get wind plan their crimes at the same time so the heroes will all be too distracted with the big thing to worry about all the smaller stuff when it all goes down."

"Aww, crud. Sounds like we'll have to get ready to evacuate the city every time you get to practice on time." Betty said with a frown.

"Not always, sometimes I can just leave it to other heroes once I clock out, and sometimes a slow spell doesn't mean anything, or some heroes stop the big thing before it goes down."

* * *

At the end, when they were done, Glory kissed MJ on the cheek. "You sang really well today, sweety." Gwen’s brain froze.

"Awww, thanks hon." MJ returns the kiss with another one on the lips.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Gwen said. " Since when are you two dating and why haven't we celebrated it yet?" She asked.

"Uh... since a week and a half ago? And we told you after band practice last week." MJ said with a, possibly, put on smile.

"Yeah, I remember you almost showed up on time for the first time in like, ever, and didn't even need to run right after. You should have heard it." Betty didn't try to hide her disapproval, and Gwen couldn't help but agree with her.

"I... I guess I must have been distracted with something."

"Don't worry about it. You're a superhero you have more important things to think about." Glory said.

"What!?" Gwen felt angry on her friends behalf. " Of course I don't, why would you even say that. Two of my best friends started dating and I didn't even realize when you told me, I'm an awful friend!"

"You're right. But we still love you." MJ smirked.

"Well I'm gonna have to step up my friendship game, starting with a celebration, my treat. So long as we stay within a college-broke-budget."

"But we're not even going to college yet." Glory said, which was true but only for three more months and it couldn't hurt to budget accordingly.

"And you have a job," Betty added. "Don't they pay you?"

"Not really, super-heroics are volunteer work only. Unless you're an Avenger, which are privately funded by Tony Stark."

"Right, okay. To the doughnut shop I guess."

"Celebratory doughnuts, I like where your heads at, Glory." MJ said as she followed her girlfriend out of her garage.

"You coming Betty?" Gwen asked while picking up her backpack with a change of clothes.

"Heck yeah I am. But are you paying for me too, Gwen?"

"Sure, my budget can afford six or eight doughnuts."

Betty, grinned. "Awesome."

* * *

They had all finished their first doughnut and had gotten seconds, or in Glory's case a third, when Gwen’s spidey-sense went off. The place wasn't about to explode, and no Truck was coming their way, but something still made the whole area dangerous.

She faked getting a phone call, putting the device against her ear.

"What's up?... Oh, more work?... Yeah I'm close by, I'll be there soon." She putt her phone away.

"So 'work' called." MJ eyed her skeptically.

"Yep. Sorry ladies, gonna have to cut this celebration short." She'd decided to act in case someone else was watching, because that was a _distinct_ possibility, but hoped that her friends would catch on.

"No problem, guess we'll just go home?" Glory had made it a question, probably because she'd caught on.

"Why don't you head to, uh..." She thought on it. Judging by her spidey-sense, the danger was all around, so no one direction was better, but they should all stay together just to be on the safe side. "Why don't we make it a sleep-over celebration. I'll join you when I'm done with work."

"Alright ladies, we're going to MJ's." Betty said.

"Why my place?"

"Cause it's close and big enough for all of us, obviously."

Gwen focused on her spidey-sense as her friends left, she decided to move in the oppositedirection. If the danger didn't change it wasn't targeting any of them, if it followed her friends, or if it split up to follow both she'd be in trouble, and if it followed her... that might just be the worst option, depending on her luck.

After a while the danger moved, following her, and worse still, she couldn't see or hear any change around her. She hoped, prayed, that it didn't mean what she thought it meant, because she really, really, didn't want to have to deal with him. Ever again. Ever.

As she came closer to an alleyway, her spidey-sense went off again, much stronger than before, coming from the end of the alleyway. She tried to just hurry past, pretend she hadn't noticed anything, because if she was wrong, if her prayers had bee answered just for once, she might get away with that.

"Hello miss Stacey." _Webs._ The man, the one she'd hoped to never see again after the Hand had chased him off, had secretly hoped the Hand would kill, even as she knew she shouldn't, stepped towards her. The man in a red suit, with pitch black sunglasses and a walking stick, the blind man with brown hair and a smile that would haunt her nightmares for years to come, was looking at her.

Well, not looking really, he did it with his ears, but there wasn't much of a difference with this one. "Well well well, seems you aren't even dressed properly yet. Why don't you meet me on that roof, I have some business to discuss with you."

"I don't play your games anymore, Murderdock."

The man in red chuckled. "I always liked that nickname you gave me. Even if it sounds like you've assigned me a doctorate in murder, though I suppose Hand training isn't that far off from it.

"I digress. You don't exactly have a choice on whether you go up there you know. That's where my men are supposed to gather and if you don't come up soon, I'll just have to occupy them with your friends who just left." She was surprised he still _had_ men, considering he was the _former_ Hand regional chief. The same Hand who had chased him off after he betrayed them.

The group of killer ninjas would rather kill half of their members than let any oft their secrets slip away, and both he and any ninjas who had left with him would have known quite a number of those same secrets. Though if he'd somehow managed to get back into their fold...

"Fine."

"Excellent, my dear Gwendolyn. Seems you'll dance to my tune yet again, this'll be most productive."

* * *

She flipped over the edge of the roof, the stealthy approach didn't really work against Hand ninjas, especially not they were expecting her, so she didn't bother.

Like Murderdock had told her his men had dutifully gathered on that single roof and as expected most of them had turned her way before her feat even touched down on the roof. Unlike what she expected these ninjas weren't wearing the standard red ninja-suits the Hand was known for, but a gray version with a different mask design. Actually the whole suit was different in subtle ways, but the masks where the most obvious outliers.

Ghost Spider glanced to their leader, who was standing apart from them on top of the roof access, then shot her webs into the crowd. Most dodged, dispersingacross the roof but staying on it, others didn't react fast enough or they failed to dodge because their allies where in their way, so they had their arms webbed to their bodies, or their feet tied down.

Keeping the initiative she chased them down, punching some while webbing others who were further away. Others still, drew their weapons and came after her.

She dodged under some sword slices, barely avoided a sickle chain and got nicked by another. Her spidey-sense went off, she was moving towards a sword in motion, webbed the ground and pulled hard, but it still hit home, slicing all the way across her back.

She fell, off balance from pulling herself to the ground as well as from the _sword slicing her up_. The ninjas pounded her back.

She putt her hands on the ground and pushed. Hard, no holding back. She barreled past them as she flew up into the air, pulling one unfortunate ninja with her. Free at last she webs some more ninjas from the air before pulling herself back down.

Murderdock tapped his cane three times and the ninjas suddenly charged towards the doughnut shop, towards her friends. She rushed after them but before she had even left the roof something stabbed her back.

She stumbled, her head woozy, her vision blurred, but she stayed on her feet. The ninjas, she noticed had stopped moving, or at least they weren't chasing after her friends, some of them _were_ moving, towards her.

She punched on guy, and he flew back a bit too far, had she not held back enough? Another one came at her but she ducked the sword then shot her webs at him. Her head cleared slowly as she kept fighting, but she wasn't moving much, and she felt week, and tiered.

Murderdock tapped his cane again, and she thought she'd have to chase the ninjas, but they gathered behind him this time. He handed his cane to one of his minions then he, alone, moved towards Ghost Spider.

She put up her guard, but she was sore everywhere and so, _so_ tiered. when he punched her she reacted too slowly, repeatedly.

He kept punching and she kept being slow, and his punches _hurt_ , so much, and she was tiered, and week. It wasn't even a fight anymore, just a beat-down, but he kept going, and going, and going.

* * *

Ghost spider walked down the street. Hurt. She could web swing, would be faster, but it'd also hurt a lot more, so she walked.

She walked past 'The Bodega'. It wasn't really called that, but it's what she sometimes called it in her mind since it was the only place The Bodega Bandit seemed to rob.

"Your corn dogs or your life!" _Here we go again_.

She opened the door and got ready to fight. Just the usual, Bodega bandit was threatening the owner without so much as a weapon drawn, and Bandito sitting guard... Bandito was always _outside_ , and she hadn't walked past him. The Bodega Bandit wasn't really his normal self either, he looked sad.

"What's going on here? And what do I have to do to make you give up without a fight today? I just got my ass whopped, though I whopped some right on back."

The bandit looked at her, tears streaming down his face. "So I..." He sobbed. "I have a chance at beating you today?"

"I wouldn't say _that_ , but it does hurt to move so I'd rather not. Now will you tell me where Bandito is? Is he hurt? Is that why you're crying?"

"He- dark- hic, he... and the- car." _Oh._ That was enough of an explanation, even with all the crying.

"There, there. Why don't you give the corn-dogs back and we can just call it a night. I'll even buy you one for Bandito’s funeral service. Could attend it too."

"I... That- Okay." He handed put the few corn-dogs he had taken back down, as Ghost Spider went to pay for one.

"You know that you really don't have to do that, Ghost-Spider. His dad would just pay for the damages anyway. Including the corn-dogs he stole."

"Theft is still a crime! He needs to do better. Honor Bandito by making something of himself. Maybe volunteer at a dog shelter."

* * *

Daisy and Rayshaun had spent the past few hours planing. Not for anything in particular, just setting up contingencies and game plans for various enemies the team could face, and with varying members missing from the roster.

They where taking a well earned rest in the common room, watching TV.

"You and Doreen seem to get along well." Daisy said.

"I guess."

"You just friends or is there a chance you'll go on a date one of these days."

Ray glanced her way, before switching channel. "I think we're just friends, why do you ask?"

"Just small talk, catching up with my old partner." They switched channel again, browsing during an ad break. "You know you're the only one besides Kamala who's gone to her house, right? You sure there isn't something more between you?"

"Hey, I never said I was sure of anything, you know I'm not the best at that sort of thing,I'm just guessing. She hasn't said or done any overtly flirty things, and neither have I."

"And if she did?"

Ray took a moment to consider it. "I'd probably say yes. I mean, we're good friends so I should give her a chance, right?"

"And you'd say yes even if it where Kamala, Gwen, America, Riri, or me?"

"You know America's gay so that wouldn't happen, but other than her... I don't know." He shrugged. "Probably."

"Huh." She heard the elevator coming down.

"I'm serious Gwen, you seem really hurt this time." America and Gwen. Daisy stood up from the couch and went to fetch the first aid kit.

"My healing factor should take care of it. Should have already done a lot more than it has."

"Maybe your powers are on the fritz?" She heard Doreen's voice say. "Wouldn't have been the first time. Remember the power thief we faced."

"I hope not, that'd be really bad."

She saw the three of them coming into the room when she turned around, med-kit in hand.

"You should have called for backup Ghost-Spider," Ray said, starting the usual lecture about relying on her team.

Gwen had been a hero for a while before joining their team and had always been solo, so she wasn't in the habit of calling for backup, which Ray, who had been trained by Captain teamwork, took issue with.

"And you should get some new lines Patriot. I'm fine. This was one of my usual rouges gallery, not Secret Warrior stuff."

"You don't look fine, chika."

"Yeah, maybe you should listen to Rayshaun." Doreen suggested.

"Let me look at your wounds, Gwen. If your powers _are_ on the fritz we wouldn't want you bleeding out, or healing a broken bone poorly."

" _Fine_." She did as Daisy said, lying down on the couch, back down. Daisy didn't get a good look at it but Gwen had definitely hurt her back too, her suit had been torn and she saw some red from blood. "Most of the pain's in my ribs, you should start there." She pulled up her stretch suit's upper half, showing some rather nasty looking bruises.

"Ho-ly acorns, that looks bad." From Doreen's reaction she gauged assumed that Gwen's back was probably fine, even if bruises could elicit a stronger reaction than a clean cut despite being less urgent.

"Feels bad too, but I've had worse."

"That’s... not a good thing," Doreen said.

"It's what happens in our business, nothing to worry about," Gwen retorted and Doreen looked slightly mortified.

"Yeah, I wouldn't say _that_ . You've never needed to go to the hospital because of your healing factor but I think with bruises _that_ bad you might have broken a rib too," Patriot said.

"If I'm going to pull up my shirt any more, only one of you will get to see it. Up to you who the better medic is though."

"You wouldn't be more comfortable with Daisy?" Patriot asked.

"It'll be embarrassing regardless of who it is."

* * *

Once Gwen has gotten first aid the others come back in.

"So how bad is it?" America asked when they returned.

"Nothing major: bruises, possibly some bone fractures, but nothing broken. Powers are out though." Daisy answered. Gwen's healing factor had definitely done _something_ before it stopped working, unless she imagined the sword slashing across her back. And getting stabbed.

"Told you I'd be fine."

"You where lucky. How much time passed before you got here?" Gwen could practically _feel_ the lecture on the tip of Rayshaun’s tongue.

"Let’s see... I was close by but I was walking slow, maybe twenty minutes, and then roughly the same for Bandito’s memorial service."

"You went forty minutes without getting checked out?" Doreen sounded panicked. "You could have punctured a lung!"

"I think I'd have noticed _that_ , and with plenty of time to call you."

"If you'd have had backup you wouldn't have needed to call us. Or walk." Patriot started again, thankfully Daisy cut him off.

"Who did this to you? Did they get away? We could go after them together."

"No!" Maybe not _thankfully_ since she changed the topic to the absolute worst one. "Not this one. Any other one of my rog u es gallery is fine, M an -W olfs gang, maybe the hand? And I'd actually appreciate someone coming with me to fight that creep Jackal. But stay away from this one." Just the _thought_ that Murderdock could meet them, that her spidey-sense had stopped working and that she had missed a ninja following her, made her regret going to their base instead of collapsing in an alleyway.

"Gwen-" Daisy’s voice was stern.

"I'm not budging on this, Daisy." The others could probably hear the fear in her voice, she hoped they did, her pride be damned. "They're not ready for him and honestly, if this was how you where treated until now, neither are you."

"But you are?" Daisy asked.

" _I_ didn't get a _choice_ , you _do_ . He came after me, _targeted_ me. I've had to deal with him several times now and it's always bad. It'll be worse for you guys."

"What do you mean?" Doreen asked.

"This guy... He's got an army of ninjas, so unless you can teleport" She glanced to America, who smirked, overconfident, "or have super-senses you'll never be safe. He'll also figure out your secret identity, it's only a matter of time, even if you can avoid the ninjas. Once he does he'll use everyone you've ever cared about as leverage against you.

"Then once he's beaten and caught, if you _ever_ get that far, he's the sort of person who'd get away with all of it. You'd need months of surveillance and evidence gathering to get any court to convict him of his crimes. Months where you are vulnerable to his, let me say it again, army of ninja assassins.

"Promise me, Daisy, you won't let them go after him."

"I promise. Maybe we should get the more experienced heroes on the case? I'm sure they could handle him," Daisy suggested with a comforting smile, it didn't comfort her.

"Maybe, but if that where true he'd already be behind bars. He used to be the local boss for the Hand, so they should already have him on file." Daisy went to the control panel and searched for known local Hand operatives. Twenty results, though most of them probably only had a code name and the blurry picture Gwen could see from the couch.

"Which one is he?" She scrolled through the files. Going past a man in a red suit with sunglasses on.

"I saw him. Like I said they know of him, but they've never managed to stop him."

"Gwen..."

"...Fine. I call him Murderdock, red suit with sunglasses." She opened the file.

The file was largely empty, background in particular was a complete unknown. Known associatesincluded Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin, and The Hand. Superpowers listed where 'super-senses' with a question mark to show that they didn't know anything about it. The only substantial thing the file had was a name: Matthias Murdock.

"He's got super hearing, if you grunt from being hit during your fight, or if you're stupid enough to talk, he'll remember your voice, then if you bump into him without your mask he'll have his ninjas mark you as an enemy. If you're going after him, everyone you care about should be in S.H.I.E.L.D. protective custody, or in a safe house. Preferably on another continent.

"I think he's soured his relations with Fisk, he tried to steal his empire, then sacrificed it all to manipulate me into doing whatever he felt like, up to and including our last fight until today.

"The Hand shouldn't be too keen on him either since they where allied with Fisk at the time, though I wouldn't put it past Murderdock to have staged the falling out with both parties."

Daisy typed up what Gwen had said. "Right. I'll make a report of that."

"Can I call my friends now?"

"The band?" Rayshaun asked.

"Yeah they where with me when Murderdock’s goons appeared, they weren't followed though."

"Should we put them in protective custody?" Rayshaun asked as he typed something into his S.H.I.E.L.D. issued phone.

"Can you do the same with my dad?"

"Of course."

"Then I guess that'd be best. Though I'm not sure you can convince him to stay away from his work for even a week."

"You should go too, at least until your powers come back." Daisy said.

Gwen wanted to object, wanted to suggest using her as bait or _something_ , but she knew that wasn't the best idea, that it was just her pride talking. "Alright," she said. Murderdock was serious business, not someone you could beat while holding on to things like pride, but she'd tell whatever pro they sent that she'd help in any way. "I'd suggest a top S.H.I.E.L.D. spy though, not a hero."

* * *

Gwen hated it. First she wasn't allowed to leave the base, then she was stuck inside and armored car before being stuck inside a safe house. Her dad was 'in route' though she didn't believe he'd arrive anytime soon. George Stacy? Leaving early from work? Now _that_ would be a miracle.

She had gotten to call her friends, but only when S.H.I.E.L.D. was outside of the door, and only to confirm that they where the good guys, and not some villains masquerading as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. After that it was right back to boredom and isolation.

The safe house was small one kitchen, a single bathroom and just a tiny living room that doubled as bedroom, was all she had. She spent most of her time in the living room, a small space with a bookshelf and TV along one wall, as well as a couch that folded out into a bed and a small table with two chairs along the opposite wall.

Her phone was in airplane mode, she had used one of her protective units' phone to call her friends, so she couldn't really _do_ anything with it, and there weren't any good books around, she had checked, so she watched TV and worked out.

There wasn't really anything interesting on TV either, but it was better than nothing. As for her workout, it was awful, it just made her feel weak since even if she exerted herself extremely much she couldn't do what she used to be able to do without even trying, so she mainly watched TV.

* * *

Day two of isolation wasn't much better. There still hadn't been any real progress on the Murderdock front, she'd talked to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in charge but they had turned down her help, and she was starting to get stir-crazy. There was a news report about a burning building in Manhattan and she wished she was there with her powers back so that she could run inside. And not even just to help anybody stuck inside but just because it'd be a change in the monotonous tedium.

This lock-down thing wasn't going to work. Because her dad still wanted to work he'd gotten a separate safe house. His protective detail would escort him wherever he wanted to go, the same went for her band mates, meanwhile Gwen wasn't going anywhere.

Her only company was _her_ protective detail, four men, Tom, Bob, Jonahs, and Steve, and two women, Sarah, and Jenelle, who rotated in eight hour shifts, with two of them present at all times. Tom, Jonahs, and Sarah where friendly enough, though none of them shared any of her interests. Bob was an ass. Jenelle and Steve weren't her favorite people but she'd talk to them before Bob.

She really missed her friends, both in the band and in the team. She missed Daisy the most.

She was talking to Jenelle, Bob was in the other room eating or something, but they were running out of things to talk about.

"So what'll you do after your shift ends." Gwen was half lying over the small table, Jenelle sat on the other chair looking at the TV.

"Not really your business, Gwen." Jenelle gave her the stink-eye.

"Alright, sorry. I'm just _so bored_ right now, I'd talk about the weather if that conversation could last more than five seconds."

Jenelle made a sympathetic face, almost like she cared about her young charge. "Well if you're really _that_ bored. I'm meeting my girlfriend later, not really a date or anything, we're just gonna hang out a bit."

Gwen shot up, back straight. "Your girlfriend?"

"Fucking _homo_."

"Shut front-ass Bob." Jenelle said. "And yes, girlfriend. What, does it matter that I'm gay?

"I- Yeah I think it does. Like, I preferred talking with everyone other than Bob and Steve over you until just now."

"Really." Jenelle looked unconvinced.

"Yeah. I... I'm- I've never really talked about it with anyone, not even my best friends, but I- Well some of them _are_ gay so they'd be just as good for this, but there's baggage there, y'know? Plus they're my age so they wouldn't really have much experience about this."

"Will you get to the point?"

"Sorry. There's a girl. I may have a crush on her." Gwen's cheeks were growing hot." How do I know if she isn't straight?" Desperation crept into her voice.

"That's a though one," Jenelle said with a smile." Are you friends with her?"

"I think so?" She hoped so. " We work together."

"Do you know her opinion on homosexuals?"

"Another co-worker's openly gay. No one seems to have a problem with it."

"Then you could just ask her. That'd work." She wasn't sure how she reacted, but apparently it was amusing because it sure made Jenelle chuckle.

"Yeah see that," Gwen pointed in Jenelle’s direction, "that's not helpful."

"I know Gwen, but there really isn't a better way than that, and if you're friends you _could_ do it in a way that doesn't raise suspicion."

"Like how?"

"Well," Jenelle leaned back to think about it, "have you come out to her yet?"

"No?"

"Ask her if she'd ever date a girl, keep a straight face, and regardless of what she says, if it's an answer to your question or if she asks why you want to know, you say 'I would'.

"Act like it was just a lead up to your coming out and nobody's gonna think twice about it."

"You sure?" it seemed a bit iffy to Gwen.

"I give it an eighty percent chance of working, or at least not make her think twice, though that's just based on gut feeling."

* * *

On day three of her voluntary house arrest the news showed an attack downtown. Robots were fighting some avengers, not all of them just some, but Captain Marvel was there and so was her team. It looked like the robots might be targeting the Avengers, not any civilians, and her team was mostly just guarding the perimeter which left them with little to do, but she still, at that moment, wanted nothing more than to go join them.

She turned it off and did some push-ups.

* * *

On day five, while exercising, she imaginedweb-slinging through town. Obviously she imagined it with super-strength because doing it without would be ninety-nine percent pain, one percent fear of death.

When she wasn't just imagining working or playing the drums while working out she was talking with her protective detail. Apparently every cable channel had conspired to make Tuesday _the most_ boring day of broadcasts ever.

All of her protective detail had offered to bring some books from their homes for her to read, well all except Bob, but their tastes in books weren't even slightly up her alley and mostly just helped by making her sleep away some hours.

There hadn't been word on the Murderdock investigation but she hadn't really expected much communication, at least not after the first day, ditto on Riri's tests for when her powers would return, or if they were gone forever which was still a possibility she didn't want to consider.

Her band had started going out several days earlier and had been fine. Either Murderdock wasn't keeping an eye on them, or he was waiting to see if they'd lead him to her.

* * *

On day seven she couldn't take it anymore and decided to leave her safe house for a short walk. She wasn't wearing any of her own clothes, except for her underwear, and the plan was for her to stay away from her usual paths. After prepping for an hour, at seven PM, they left her safe-house.

As she walked around randomly Jonahs and Bob followed, Jonahs close by and Bob from further down the road. It felt _so_ good to not be in the same little apartment anymore, and it was exciting to experience something different for the first time in a week.

She'd swung around most of the city to the point that even when she walked down a street she'd never taken before it all felt familiar. She'd probably seen every street at least once even if she'd never decided to go that way, but more than that: everything just had a New York vibe to it. Even even the dumpsters looked familiar to her. Not as familiar as the buildings though...

"Your corn-dogs or your life!" _shit_.

She quickly turned to Jonahs, "Get us out of here, fast!" she whispered.

Without a second wasted Jonahs pulled her along a different path, away from the Bodega, away from the Bandit.

They were moving towards fifth avenue, cutting through alleyway along their path. They weren't far away when two gray ninjas appeared out of nowhere. Josh drew his gun but Gwen, who already assumed that fighting wouldn't work, turned around to escape.

Unfortunately what greeted her wasn't the sight of Bob trailing behind them but rather two more ninjas. Quickly turning back to Josh she only then realized that Murderdock had knocked her bodyguard out. As he stood over Josh's body she couldn't quite see if he'd killed Josh or just knocked him out, either option was possible considering Murderdock’s unpredictable ways of messing with her.

"What's with the glare, miss Stacey?" he said with a devious smile. "I'm just here to help you."

Gwen stuck her hands in her pockets, trying to look indignant, silently defiant, while secretly, and blindly, opening an app on her phone that could record their conversation. She aimed for the camera app's video function.

"You want to help me after stabbing me the last time we met and what you just killed my bodyguards?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Did he know that she was recording every word he said? Had he heard her fiddling with her phone? "More importantly I heard about your predicament, the ongoing situation that started last week, and thought that this could help." He held up a vile containing a black viscous liquid of some kind.

"And what is that supposed to be?"

"In a word power. The power to do what you always wanted to do, what you used to do until a week ago when you suddenly lost it."

 _Super_ _-powers_ _in a bottle._ Like she'd believe anything that came out of that lying, manipulative, assholes mouth.

He tossed it to her, and she reflexively caught it. Nothing happened. She didn't suddenly feel woozy or like the vial had been coated in any poison or drug, though if he wanted to drug her any of the ninjas he had around them could have done it in an instance.

When she looked up from her hands Murderdock and his goons were gone. She pocketed the vial then called S.H.I.E.L.D. using Josh's phone.

A while later an unmarked van with America inside, who was there to verify their identity before leaving through a portal, came to pick them up. They took down her official statement while ferrying off her protective detail to a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital.

She left out the vial and said Murderdock only came to mess with her, probably to make her feel unsafe, which might have been true as well. She figured she might tell them later when she'd decided what to do with it, since they probably wouldn't leave the choice to her if they got their hands on it, Riri on the other hand probably _would_ let her decide after analyzing it.

When she had finally returned to the safe-house she realized that even if Murderdock _hadn't_ heard her fiddle with her phone, he was probably in a habit of acting like everything was getting recorded. After all, he had been the Kingpin's top criminal defense lawyer for a reason.


	2. Chapter 2

She spent her eighth day  of  imprisonment staring at the vial. She hadn't gotten a chance to ask Riri to analyze it and hadn't figured out a good excuse to contact her either, so she just stared.

If Murderdock was telling the truth and that serum would give her her powers back, she'd take it in a heartbeat, even if it had some side effects, but more likely it'd do something awful to her, something irreversible that'd eat away at her sanity or her morals.

She wondered what it could be, how it would ruin her life, about as much as she fantasized about getting her powers back. In her mind, though, every time the fantasy involved opening the vial it would end horribly, so she tried to imagine they came back on their own, or that Riri would help her.

* * *

In the afternoon of her eighth day in hell, robots attacked the city. It was the same robots who had fought the Avengers a few days earlier, but this time there were a lot more, and they weren't just going after heroes.

The news showed the Avengers fighting the robot army, but they seemed to struggle more than last time.  _That had probably just been a trial run. These are the finalized versions._

Reports said other Heroes were picking up the fight all over the city. The news showed the fights from several different helicopter cameras, including one which seemed to have focused on her teams fight.

A big robot with tentacle arms copied straight from Doc. Ock had captured Iron Heart, who wasn't moving at all. Judging by the lack of a glow from her suit it seemed possible that it was just because her suit was offline, but it could be much worse. Ms. Marvel and Squirrel girl were struggling against three smaller robots who were out-speeding them and tying Ms. Marvel in knots. Another tentacle from the big robot caught Inferno just as one of the smaller one landed a powerful hit on Patriot.

Daisy wasn't looking too well either, bleeding from her head while holding her side. Gwen had been hurt worse, many times, and  some of her friends had too she  suspected , but being unable to help Daisy was tearing her up inside.

She kept her eyes on the TV, hoping that they'd show her some hint as to where the Secret  Warriors were fighting.

She’d call someone for backup if Daisy  hadn’t obviously done it already. She was a gr e at leader after all, and  _that_ situation was not good.

On the TV she saw Daisy attack the smaller robots directly with a sonic blast, but she didn't see any obvious effect of it at first. That is, until they hit Inferno so hard he wouldn't get up again. T h ey stepped over him without any care as they approached Daisy, who made a protective dome for herself that the three robots immediately started digging into.

The camera refocused, showing more of the street, which let Gwen spot some vital details. She knew the area, of course, recognized it especially well thanks to the angle. Without hesitation Gwen opened the vial Murderdock had given her, and she would've chugged it  immediately if it hadn't moved before she got the chance. The liquid  stretched over her skin, under her clothes until it had completely covered her.

She charged out the door, out of her safe house, without wasting a second, then web-slung the rest of the way. Her mind was  laser focused, disregarding everything that wouldn't help her destroy those robots.

Her muscles didn't hurt yet, she pulled harder, pushing herself to move faster, swung past other robots on the way, irrelevant. She took a corner fast, didn't see the robot hovering there before her spidey-sense  alerted her of the danger.

She punched right through it as she kept swinging down the streets, muscles aching from lack of oxygen.

She saw a big robot holding several people, as well as a girl  untangling her limbs, swung past. A mound with three robots  digging into it, pulled herself to the ground, or rather a robot. Crushed it's head, leg well into it's body.

One of the robots charged her, webbed the chest, spun it around herself once before tossing it into the other robot. Both were getting up, she charged. One robot fired an energy blast of some kind her way, she dodged before it had even locked on, webbed the other robot, in time to make it stumble down at her feet. She pulled off the armor panels, bending them.

Another blast from the other robot, she used it's friend as a shield while she pulled  apart it's contents until she only sensed motionless scrap instead of a robot.  T ossed it at the last one, before  charging at it. It was faster than her, but it didn't run, tried to fight, lost  immediately.

* * *

When Rayshaun woke up the big robot was holding him in it's arms. It also had Iron Heart, Squirrel Girl, and Inferno. Ms.Marvel was just getting herself  untangled , and the three smaller robots were attacking a dome, Quake was probably using it to shield herself from their attacks, it didn't look good for them.

Before he knew what was happening a black figure landed on one of the robots, taking it out instantly. The black figure was a woman wearing a stretch-suit with spiked shoulders and a hood like razor sharp teeth with a tongue trailing behind it.

Ms.Marvel looked between the lady in black and the big robot. He didn't know of any superhero with a suit like that, no villain either for that matter, and Ms.Marvel seemed  equally unsure about the new combatant.

"Focus on the big one for now!"

She turned to look at him, then nodded.

She was worn out, and needed to pull herself together,  literally , so she focused on avoiding the  tentacles that came grabbing for her. Even while holding fo u r of them in one arm each the robot still had four of it's eight arms free which meant there was a lot to dodge.

Next to him Squirrel Girl had woken up, and Iron Heart had gotten her suit online, but Inferno was still out cold. The three of them  struggled as best they could, trying to make it harder for the robot to land a hit on Ms.M  and keep a hold on them . 

Behind Ms.Marvel the lady in black ruthlessly teared the robots to  shreds before turning on the dome. The robot swung one of it's arms l i ke a whip,  stretching long enough to hit the lady in black if she hadn't dodged it. Instead it hit the dome, tearing away a few chunks of it. She turned towards them,  charging the robot  not a second later .

This one was bigger than the ones she had destroyed before, and had thicker armor, but she targeted the spots where the  tentacles joined with it's body,  punching them clean off and freeing both Iron  H eart and him in the process. she used the holes in the armor to get a better grip as she kept tearing at it.

T h e robot tried to grab her but before it's  tentacles got close enough Iron Heart blasted them with enough power to cause a malfunction. Like if the  wires had been cut where she blasted it, the arms fell limp beyond that point. Ms.Marvel, who had had a moment to rest,  wrestled with its remaining  two  arms.

The lady in black bent the robot's armor  panels enough to reach inside and tore out its components, much like she'd done to the second of the three smaller robots.

Once it was down. she turned back to the dome  Q uake had made, or more  accurately , where the dome used to be. Quake had opened it up again and Squirrel Girl was taking a look at her. The lady in black rushed towards them.

" S he's going for Quake, stop her!" he sh outed, still unsure of whether she was friend or foe, but unwilling to risk his partner to give her the benefit of the doubt.

The lady in black, webbed both of his arm s, pulled them together and to his right, before vaulting over him. Ms.Marvel enbiggened herself and made a grab for her but  m issed both tries, Squirrel Girl made herself combat ready as the lady in black got close, but was pushed away like she was nothing.

The lady in black stopped abruptly and began checking Quake for injuries.

"Ookay... I guess it was fine."

"Kind of weird how she charged all of a sudden, though," Ms.Marvel said.

"Everyone else alright?" their team leader asked, as the lady in black kept checking her for injuries. 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Rayshaun just barely saw the streak of golden glow in the sky that usually meant Captain Marvel was around, but it was gone before he could get a proper look.  There were  nods all  around , except for Inferno who was still out.

"Inferno isn't up yet, but everyone else seems good,"  he said.  Ms.Marvel quickly ran over to him, scared.

"They hit him harder than you, like they'd gone insane or something. It's why I had to hide in that dome until backup arrived. Gi v e him some first aid."

"On it." Partiot hurried over, but left both Iro n Heart and Squirrel Girl with Quake.

* * *

After having fussed over her for well over two minutes the mystery hero took a step back with a nod, ap p arently satisfied that she wasn't injured. Something about how she did it, ma y b e in the pose or in the self  satisfied little sound she made, reminded Quake of Gwen.

"Gwen..."

The mystery hero jumped back slightly. She looked  around for a second before she left, web-slinging away.  _ She even has Gwen's powers. _

"Should we... go a fter her or something?" Squirrel Girl asked.

"I don't know." Daisy wasn't sure what to think about her. The way she'd acted was just like Gwen but...

"If that is Gwen," Iron heart said, "why didn't she say anything?"

"Don't know. But for now, since it seems like the robots have something built in to stop you, see if you can't provide backup to the mystery hero." She hoped that she was making the right call, could be trouble if she wasn't.

Iron Heart hurried after the mystery hero.

"Is Inferno alright?" She turned her focus to the rest of her team and what they could do to help in the crisis. If they could keep going that'd be the best course of action, but she suspected not all of them would.

"Not sure, it could be anywhere from no problem to a serious  concussion. Best to take him to a hospital just to be sure," Patriot answered.  _Not good._

"Alright, take him, then group back up with us. The rest of you: we've still got robots swarming the streets and other villains taking advantage."

"Right," Ms.Marvel said with a nod. She was obviously  worried about Inferno, but she was trying to focus on what they should be doing.

* * *

Gwen swung away. Daisy was safe, the robots  obliterated. She was happy.

It didn't take long before she noticed an enemy following her, completely out in the open. They hadn't set off her spidey-sense, but she already knew that it wasn't flawless so that didn't necessarily mean anything.

After getting  around a corner she quickly changed direction and stuck herself to the buildings wall. Her  pursuer stopped after rounding the corner, probably because she'd lost Ghost-Spider.

??? shot away from the wall readying a swing, but she stopped, instead landing on her  pursuer , Iron Heart. Her friend.

Iron Heart pulled back, probably on reflex since it wouldn't help when she was already  attached.

Crocked her head before jumping off swinging along down the street, robbed of a battle. SHe, they? noticed some masked guy looting a broken display window, jumped down to fight them.

It was big green reptile in a lab coat who quickly swung at their head with it’s claws. They ducked under it and hit back a few times. Iron Heart fired at him(?) as well, which wasn't appreciated.

They shot a web in Iron Heart's direction, hoping she'd understand.  And she did, flying back a bit and staying out of the fight until ??? was satisfied .

What followed wasn't like with the robots, no destruction, but they got to hit the  Lizard quite a bit before he ultimately went down and they webbed him in place on a wall. After they put the  pile of electronics he had taken back into the display window they swung away, with Iron Heart still following them.

* * *

After  their fight,??? let Iron Heart in on  their battles which ranged from normal robbers they could take down by just webbing them up, to the robots they could destroy, to super criminals which were fun but in a different way.

All in all it lasted a few hours with little boring between-fights-time. They were exhausted, but in the best way possible. Since the fighting had died down it was time for ??? to head home.

They stopped. Where was home? What  was a home  even  supposed to be? And who were they? Iron Heart was still following them, was that okay? Should they escape?  They weren’t sure but figured it’d probably  be  for the best if they got away.

??? took off again, moving as fast as they could in their tiered state.  They swung fast, making quick turns whenever they left Iron Heart’s view. Doubling back below her,  turning into narrow alleyways, and even at one point going through a bui l ding.

It took a while but they got away, hid carefully and waited. Iron heart moved on after she failed to locate them, and ??? went down into the sewers to avoid getting spotted again,  too tiered to repeat their escape again .

As they moved  around they tried to figure out their situation. They knew a lot about a lot of things. They knew who their enemies were, knew who their friends were, but they didn't know what ' family ' or 'father' really meant anymore. And most of their friends were 'Gwen's friends' but who was 'Gwen'? Who were they?  _What_ were they? And were they one or two?

They left the sewers next to a dumpster,  and without a clear home to return to, after all  they could only think of homes that belonged to ‘Gwen’, they decided to sleep there that night.

* * *

Riri met up with her team late that evening. She hadn't done a lot of physical exercise really, since her  armor and A.M.I.,  her AI, had done most of the heavy lifting, but it had still been exhausting working non stop for hours like that.

When she came down the elevator the team was waiting for her.

"What's up?"

"It's Gwen. She  disappeared during the attack." Kamala said.

"So like I said  GiB could  definitely be Gwen," Doreen said.

“Are we really calling her GiB?” Dante asked.

“DO _you_ want to keep saying Girl in Black? No? Then we’re calling her GiB.”

"Except she would have said something right?" Daisy looked at her.

"Well she didn't say anything while we were fighting together, even in the end when we split up."

"Could be that Murderdock got to her." Patriot said, and Kamala shot him a glare.

"Do we know where this GiB is now?" America asked. She was the only one there who hadn't met her.  Technically Inferno hadn't met her either but he was n’t there, presumably because the hospital had wanted him to stay the night for further observation .

"It seemed like she wanted me to leave her  alone so we  separated ten minutes ago.  S he could be anywhere by now."

Daisy slammed her fist on the wall she was leaning on. It was unusual for her to loose her cool, but then that day wasn't really a usual one anymore. One teammate missing, another in the hospital, as their leader that must have been awful for her.

"For now, let's reach out to anybody she might contact ed as well as S.H.I.E.L.D. and any heroes who know her, let them know that she's missing and to tell us if they hear from her or spot her somewhere," Riri suggested.

"Yeah." Daisy said before she went to the opps room. Her face was grim but she didn't voice her thoughts.

* * *

??? woke up. Gwen woke up? They had all of Gwen’s memories but it didn't  _feel_ like they were Gwen. Gwen had opened Murderdock’s vial,  they had jumped out and surrounded herself. They? She? What was gender again? D i dn't matter.

Murderdock was their enemy. He had tortured them before stuffing them in a vial. Done some experiments? Studied them?  Had on multiple occasions targeted her to make her life a living hell.

He wouldn't let Gwen be for long. Not after he realized that she had opened the vial. They needed to go on the offensive.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had a  surveillance team ready. They might not be able to use anything if  they attack ed first.

??? wanted to hit something. She might be a bit too  aggressive now. She? Was she a she? Were they a they? Again that gender thing, but they also had to consider the possibility that they could be two. 

Symbiotes. ??? was a  symbiot e .  Gwen was a symbiote, why should ??? be the symbiote. Then again ??? was what both called themselves, sort of.  And regardless both halves had to be symbiotes by the definition of the word, but the non-Gwen part was  part of the species people often called Symbiote.  A Symbiote with a capital ‘s’.

Murderdock,  their mind provided, bringing them  back on track. He would be a problem, but  they 'd anticipate it, act first. Not by attacking him though, maybe attacking his criminal  business ? Something without a clear, provable, tie to him,  or that would make him a criminal if he revealed said tie .

The only problem was that he had sacrificed it all to come after Gwen last time around, they had no idea what bus i ness dealings he had anymore. Which his al l ies were or what company he kept.

But she kn e w who he his former allies were, and to exploit it she'd need her suit. Or rather they needed to look the part. ??? changed the shape and  color of their  exterior layer, the part of them that surrounded 'Gwen's body', made it look like the Ghost-Spider suit.

* * *

Their first stop was  Hell’s Kitchen, a little sushi and  ramen place called Oishii to be precise. It was a known Hand front, though no one had ever been able to prove it.

They barged into the back room, not bothering with being polite or about any  trespassing /probable cause issues. They found a number off staff minding their own  business.

"Where's your boss."

One of them pointed to another door, they opened it without knocking.

"Who are you? You think you can just come in here and treat me like a second class  citizen just because I'm  Asian ? I'll have you know I know my rights!" He was a short man, slightly on  t he chubby side and well into the process of balding. His watch was gold though, Rolex probably, suggesting more money than the restaurant was likely to produce.

"I'm sure you do, and I'm equally sure  lots of superheroes keep pestering you whenever they're looking for the Hand so I'll be quick.

"Let them know Matthias Murdock is back in town, and unless they give me everything they have on him I'll consider them his allies again. Which means I'll come down hard on them."  They weren’t sure, but considering Murderdock’s goons had worn gray instead of the Hand’s signature red, ??? figured they might  _not_ be part of the Hand anymore.

"Is that all," he scoffed, "doubt they'd care about just one superhero."

"Just deliver the message," ??? said as they left.

"Hey, I'm not working for them," he called behind  them . 

"Don't care."

* * *

The hand fronts were easy. Few of them were so obvious about their illegal dealings that they'd draw weapons on every superhero that tried to goat them into a fight. Fisk's were the polar  opposite. They were obviously criminal but hard to trac e back to him. 

There was a lot to be said about just attacking his things and hoping you'd make his  business go into the red, chiefly that it didn't work because of how many  cops would just 'loose the evidence' because he payed them a monthly retainer.

As consequence, breaking into one of the front's to leave a message would be a big hassle, but he did have legit  businesses as well, and an office you could book an appointment with. They didn't bother with an appointment though.

"Wait, Mr.Fisk is in a meeting right now." 

They ign o red the secretary just like she'd ignored the office workers after they had entered through an open window.

Fisk in his white suit, and some guy in a dark blue suit were discussing something, but both became silent when the door flew open.

"I'd ask you to be careful with the doors because they're expensive, but something about you  barging in here makes me  suspect that you wouldn't care." Fisk shot  them a glare.

"Matthias Murdock is back in town."

"My old lawyer, what does he have to do with anything."

They rolled their eyes.  _Deniability_ , they could play ball.

"Nothing, really. Seems like he's a criminal as well, might have  business with your old friends so I thought I'd see what you might know about it."

"Nothing at all, I assure you. My  parole strictly stipulates that I don't have any contact with any known criminals." So he wouldn't tell  them in person.

"Then I guess I'll have to pay all of them a visit myself. I think Hammerhead should know, right? Of course if he doesn't I'll have to  beat him and your other friends until one of them remembers something. I he a r he hangs at the docks these days?”  They’d made that last part up, it was just where they suggested to meet him.

"He was the type to know things, yes,  but I wouldn’t know his whereabouts. "

They turned around and walked out the door.

"Weren't you a criminal? Killed a boy if I recall."

She struggled to keep her outer layer from changing, from adding spikes to her shoulder or becoming black. "I was wanted for questioning. They caught the  k iller though."

They  left.

* * *

Kamala was worried. She worried about Dante, even if the doctors said he was fine, even  if he was fit to fight villains with them again. She was also worried about Daisy, who was getting desperate in their search for Gwen.

Daisy looked like she'd stayed up all night searching, with heavy bags under her eyes and slightly more messy hair than usual. 

She didn't show her desperation though, not in her face or how she acted, but she hadn't taken a break at all that day, calling people, searching the streets herself... ' Pa t roling ' she'd called it, as if the team didn't know she was searching for Gwen.

Kamala was almost  surprised the pol ice didn't have an APB out on her, but that would have probably done more harm then good once J.  Jonah Jameson heard about it.

"Why don't you take a break? The w orld won't end if you nap for a few minutes."

"I have work to do." Daisy kept typing away at her computer, Kamala didn't know what she was doing exactly but it was clearly S.H.I.E.L.D. related  going by the color palette of what was shown on the screen .

"Gwen won't get hurt either..."

Daisy stopped for a second, then kept typing. "You don't know that."

"But doesn't everybody already know to look for her, what  _more_ ca n you d o? Just rest and let the others handle it."

"I..."

Kamala’s phone went off. She didn't want to check it, but it could be important.

It was a twitter notification, she'd set it so that it'd go off if someone tagged Ghost-Spider, which had led to mostly just crap, but it had just payed off. She had been  sighted in  Midtown .

"Daisy!" Riri called out as she ran across the room to her Iron Heart suit. "A.M.I. just found Gwen!"

Daisy shot out of her chair.

"You don't have to come though," Kamala tried, "Me and Riri can handle it ourselves."

Daisy didn't stop as she headed to the elevator.

* * *

There wasn't anything else ??? needed to do that day. Nothing else  they could think of would help  them head off Murderdock. Maybe they could try to go after other criminals, see if anybody knew what he was up to. Wasn't too likely though, he was Hand after all,  and few people knew much about any of them.

They were on their way back to their hiding spot, to wait for night to come when they saw Gwen's friends,  when they saw  Daisy. They stopped on a wall. 

Ms.Marvel enbiggened to reach up while Iron Heart just flew closer to  them .

"Ghost spider, where have you been? We were worried about you." Iron Heart said.

They changed their outer layer again, back to the black suit. Last time ??? hadn't known why they left, that time they did, they weren't ready to be Gwen. Weren't ready to be Gwen again? It was complicated. And maybe it'd always be complicated, maybe they'd never be ready to be Gwen again. Did they even want to be her?

Gwen’s friends recoiled when they saw them change. Ms.Marvel got angry, the others were harder to read,  because Daisy was too far away and Iron Heart’s mask was an emotionless face-plate.

"Why did you dress up as Ghost-Spider?"

They shrugged.

"Wait," Iron Heart said, "we're still not sure that she isn't Ghost-Spider. Are you?"

_Technically_ they were, but what would their friends do if they found out? Would they try to fix them, make them Gwen again? Did they want that? No, not like that, they decided, but maybe Gwen would want it...

??? crawled along the wall, aware that Gwen's friends were following them. They jumpe d and swung away, unsure of whether the team would follow them or let them  l eave. Thankfully they did  the second option , so they swung away.

* * *

For the first time they realized that they had lost Gwen's phone. Upon bonding Gwen's clothes had been destroyed and her phone must have dropped at that time. It wasn't a big deal but it did mean that they had no way of contacting people, other than by approaching them in person.

That in and of itself wouldn't be a problem, but they didn't want Gwen's father to worry, didn't want her friends to worry either, and  definitely didn't want Daisy to worry, but actually meeting them would mean they'd have to be Gwen for a bit.

You'd think that if they  _had to_ be Gwen they'd meet Daisy, but they really weren't ready for that, so instead ??? went to visit Glory, the one least likely to ask too many hard questions. The one who almost always cut Gwen the most slack.

So they climbed up the wall to Glory's window,  easily  got it open without  damaging it, that's fifth floor window security for you, and hid inside. They changed their surface layer again, this time to look like normal clothes. 

As they waited for Gwen’s friend,  t heir friend? They certainly thought of her as one, but the feeling might not be mutual.

As they waited for their friend they pondered what exactly they were. Clearly they were both Gwen and the  Symbiote that Murderdock had put in a vial, that part of them didn't even have a name yet, maybe it never would since they'd spent so little time in that state.

The door opened, and Glory entered, throwing her purse on her bed.

"Glory," they whispered,  startling their friend.

"Jeesus, Gwen! You scared the shit out of me!" She closed the door and spoke in hushed tones, probably to hide ???'s sudden  appearance from her family. "What are you doing here? Scratch that, what have you been doing since yesterday? Your 'colleagues' came by asking about you."

"What about you, thought you'd be  cooped up in a safe house after my sudden  disappearance. " It had been a lucky break, but it  _was_ strange.

"No, they wanted me to come by in case you showed up somewhere other than your own safe house, so about what you've been doing..."

"Work."

Glory leveled a serious stare at her. "Don't bullshit me, your  _colleagues_ didn't even know where you were."

"I realize that, it's why I'm here. To tell you, and everybody else, that I'm fine. But I'm kind of busy, trying to deal with some work related stuff," Was their identity crisis work related? "so I won't be around for a while. Don't worry though, I'll be fine." _Probably._

Glory sighed. "And I suppose you won't tell me what you're doing."

"Got it in one."

Glory hung her head slightly. "Is there anything you need for your mission?"

"Um... I kind of dropped my wallet, so cash? It might be a while before I can go back home and I don't want to starve."

"I'll see what I can get you, but you'll have to pay me back, alright? I can't really pay for a weeks worth of food just before I'll be coll e ge broke." Glory went to her door.

"I  promise ," ??? whispered.

"And that means you'll have to come back in one peace, you know."

* * *

??? was lying on a roof, back in black, and really just waiting for night, when  they 'd visit Hammerhead and see about finding some Hand ninjas.

Glory really was one of their  favorite people. Without too many questions she'd gathered up enough money to last them for a week and had hugged them before they left, doing her best to be  reassuring.

They stood up and  stretched , not that they really ever needed to  stretch. As much as they wanted to deal with their troubles regarding who, or what, they were, they were just thinking in circles at that point, and it really didn't help. And as much as they wanted to deal with Murderdock, there was only so much they could do if they weren't going to attack him  directly.

??? swung around in the city, aimless, when they noticed Kamala talking with some friends that weren't from their team. They missed that. Friends, that is.

They hadn't really been comfortable talking withe them, and even with how supportive Glory had been, unless they told her about what they were, unless they stopped being Gwen to her, they couldn't  _really_ be comfortable in her company. And they just weren't ready for that.

They followed Kamala for a bit before they swung away.

* * *

The elevator lowered into their base. Dante had been cleared to join them again, but because of Kamala’s  insistence he'd agreed not to really  _do_ anything for another day, so he wouldn't have had a reason to be there other than to hang out with his friends if it weren't for that strange incident half an hour earlier.

It was late by then and he hadn't  noticed at first but he was  definitely followed on his way home from  the vegan doughnut place. .

His friends where sitting quietly mostly frowning.

"What happened here?"

It was Kamala who  answered,  in a half whisper . "Well  apparently Gwen is on a warpath with Murderdock, but sh e doesn't want our help, and some weird girl in a black suit is stalking us."

Dante noticed the screen showing both a picture of the girl he saw stalking him and a gif of Ghost-Spider transforming into her.

"It's a  S ymbiote, not a suit," Rayshaun said. "Actually the correct term is  Klyntar , but almost  no  one calls them that.

"They're considered very dangerous, by default and that can be bumped up to  extremely dangerous if they bond to someone intelligent enough or if they're modified in a lab first."

"Well whatever she is, I saw her too." Dante told his team.

"That makes three," Rayshaun said. "Kamala, me, and you." He informed Dante.

"Well I say, if this  S ymbiote bonded to Gwen, that'd explain why it knows our identities." Doreen said.

"But why would Gwen be stalking us?" he asked.

"Helloo, it is  possessing our friend,  obviously it thinks we'd have a problem with that. And it's totally right about tha t." Doreen answered. 

Daisy  balled her fist. " If I hadn't let her go..."

"Hey, we only knew that she was a  S ymbiote then, not that she knew our  secret identities." Kamala looked sad as she fussed  around their  stoic team leader, quite a strong contrast in moods there,  as though Daisy needed emotional support. Then again, Kamala was better than him at picking up on that sort of thing

"If  GiB is Gwen, does that mean she isn't fighting Murderdock?" America asked.

"Well we know she visited Glory, one of her band mates, and told her she was fine and 'working', which is code for doing superhero things, but that could have just been the Symbiote, right?" Doreen looked to Rayshaun.

"Yeah, maybe," he  answered. "I say whether the  S ymbiote is  G wen or not, we should capture it. If it is Gwen, she's probably not fine at all, and if it isn't she's fine which means we can focus on our stalker."

That sounded reasonable to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters this week (this one was supposed to go up last week but due to the subject of ???'s questioning their gender and so much else, I needed to get some input from people who have actually gone through something similar before uploading this.


	3. Chapter 3

??? waited on a warehouse in the docks, the sun had set but it wasn't dark yet. Thing was, they hadn't agreed on a time, their fault really, so they waited and hoped that sundown was an obvious enough time to assume they'd meet up. Otherwise they'd probably have to wait until midnight.

They had already changed their surface to look like their Ghost-spider suit before they got there, complete with a backpack to put anything he gave them into, just in case Hammerhead had his people on the lookout for them, but it still took a while before he arrived, in a car no less.

"Ah, Ghost-Spider, I heard you're looking for Mathias Murdock these days." He looked their way as they jumped down from the roof.

"He started it. Personally I was sure the Hand had killed him already."

"Yes, well, he got some new associates who make it rather troublesome to go after him."

"Figured, so who is it?" they asked as they came within punching distance of Hammerhead.

"That's the thing, see, it isn't one group or organization, it's everybody. He's situated himself as somewhat of a peace broker, got chummy with half of the underworld by now.

"In New York alone that makes five decently sized organizations that are backing him up, among them Manwolf's gang, who I've heard you're familiar with."

"Anything else I need to know?"

"We have some of their locations on file." He waved a file folder in his hand. "You could go after them right now if you wanted."

"I'll cross reference my own files if it's all the same to you." They took the file from him, flipped through it quickly, then tucked it into their backpack. They did so without taking said backpack off since it was actually a part of them.

Hammerhead raised an eyebrow.

??? didn't like the way he looked at them, like he was trying to figure them out, reminded her of Murderdock just a bit too much despite the fact that Murderdock never looked at anything.

"Is this everything?"

"It's everything we'll give you. At least for now." He nodded.

They swung away.

* * *

It didn't take too long after ??? left the docks before the Hand sent them a note leading them to another file, this one in a book rather than loose sheets in a file. They didn't have access to 'their own files' which they'd claimed they would double check things against, but their memory was decent and they'd check things on site.

??? decided to not go after Manwolf at first, too predictable, and instead infiltrated the supposed hideout of a gang they didn't recognize.

Stealth was one of their strong suits, especially since they bonded and got Gwen's sneaking skills together with ???'s camouflage and costume change abilities.

The ‘Inner demons' were all dressed the same, black suits with Chinese looking demon masks covering their faces, so it was possible that they wouldn't even realize if ??? just strolled around inside their hideout, but it was open enough and with so few guards patrolling that they didn't even need to use that trick.

They went through some paperwork they found in an office, took pictures using the burner phone they’d gotten to call the cops with, nothing too damning but if it was all a faked they'd put some considerable effort into tricking ???.

They snuck out again without leaving any traces behind.

* * *

Late that night, maybe at 1 am, they arrived at one of Manwolf's hideouts. Again they decided to go for the stealthy approach, using a second story window in the back to enter into the abandoned warehouse.

Manwolf's gang, was just that, a gang. They weren't the most organized bunch and weren't by far one of the bigger players in the city, but they did robberies and some drug trafficking. Unlike Mr.Negative's bunch, they didn't have a uniform or where masks inside so that strategy as out, but they had a lot more damning evidence displayed out in the open.

??? dropped down behind some open crates, with some people not three meters away, and took a better look on the weapons inside. They noticed that some, but not all, had had their serial-numbers filed off, which was enough for an arrest, and they were sure that the cops would find a lot more evidence once they took a look around the place.

They didn't recognize anybody though, which meant it _was_ possible that the people in the warehouse weren't part of Manwolf's gang. They took another look around.

There were 31 people in total, 22 men, 9 women. At least 8 of them were armed with handguns, and some had assault-rifles or shotguns within reach. They all had Manwolf's gang symbol so they were either with him or Fisk.

They decided to go at it slowly, take the ones furthest away from the others first then move in. After webbing in 11 of them that way the remaining twenty were all too close to each other for them to remain unnoticed while taking out more gang-members.

They crawled up a wall to the roof, got a high angle to get a better feel for how their opponents were scattered around the room. They were in three loose groups, one bigger and another more dispersed, but the third one, a group of five, were all close together.

They shot their webs from the roof when they webbed the group of five, reducing the number to fifteen in an instance. From there they moved quickly across the room on the walkways above.

There were two gang members there, they were webbed down since a while ago and no threat, but they served to prevent their friends from firing up at ???.

??? Jumped down into the largest group, nine people, and quickly webbed half of them while throwing some punches. Someone outside of the group opened fire on the them so ??? leapt out, lashed their tongue at him, striking the gun out of his hand, and webbed him down.

Using their tongue and webs they whittled down their numbers until none remained, tied everybody up nicely, then left a note for the police. then called them using their burner phone.

* * *

It was two days after Gwen's disappearance, sunday. The two leading theories where that she wither was going after Murderdock and was 'fine' or she was, at that very moment, possessed by the Symbiote that was stalking her team and was definitely _not_ fine.

Daisy yawned. She _had_ actually slept that night even if it didn't feel like she had, and was more or less in good enough a state to work. Some might argue that she shouldn't work on sundays, but those were the same people who would have told her not to work on saturday, so she was already ignoring them why should she stop now.

The morning had been a bust, no news about the Symbiote they had dubbed Bite-size or Ghost-Spider, but they knew Bite-size was a shape-shifter so who really knew if someone had spotted her. The Secret Warriors, who were on the lookout for anybody stalking them, also hadn't reported seeing someone.

the secret warriors alert flared.

"Uhh, guys?" Kamala's voice came through the comms.

"Yeah?" Daisy answered.

"I just saw Sheath. Isn't she supposed to be like, imprisoned or something?"

"She is. Hold up," Daisy checked S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records on her, "there were several prison breaks during the commotion on friday, both Sheath and Exile escaped."

"Try to follow her covertly, Ms.Marvel, see if she'll lead us to Exile," Rayshaun said.

Daisy sent a non-urgent back-up request on Ms.Marvel's position to the other secret warriors before heading there herself.

* * *

??? woke up in the afternoon. They'd stayed up until morning, at first because they were paranoid that Murderdock would retaliate quickly, and then because their mind kept circulating with the question of who they were, primarily if they were one or two.

Arguments in favor of one mostly were about how hard it was to distinguish between traits thy got from one or the other half of their being, arguments in favor of two seemed to be about the fact that they did have distinct bodies if you wanted to be pedantic, and had at some point been completely separate, so they could very well separate again in the future.

They swung around aimlessly, hoping that Murderdock would reach out to them sooner rather than later. They thought about what he would threaten, what he would leverage, tried to plan for every contingency, but it was ultimately futile. They knew that no matter what they tried they couldn't plan for everything, and no matter what contingencies they planned for Murderdock excelled at leveraging even Gwen's personality against her, so their only hope was that their personality was different enough to make them unpredictable.

As the minutes went by without even a hint of Murderdock they grew increasingly anxious and worried. By that point Murderdock should have already been looking for them for several hours, or if not him at least Manwolf, but so far they hadn't seen a hint of either. They could have gone after ???'s friends instead, but that thought didn't really comfort them so they tried to ignore that particular fear.

There was a commotion a few blocks further ahead so they swung that way, though they were careful not to be spotted by any potential enemy just yet. What they saw around the corner was their friends fighting Sheath, Exile and some new guy they'd never seen before, who seemed to be able to turn intangible.

??? felt comfortable looking at them, felt like they were with friends as they watched the fight. It was calming.

Their team seemed to have a handle on the situation so ??? kept their distance, as they had been doing ever since they escaped from Iron Heart. Using their color shift they blended in with the wall slightly, but not enough for it to me anywhere near invisibility. They could have pushed it further, but the idea of tipping their hand so early didn't sit right with them, so they didn't.

* * *

Sheath was sitting down, cuffed and waiting for the prisoner transport. Exile had escaped at the end with their new ally Hollow, but they'd get them eventually.

America could have sworn she'd hit him hard enough for a knockout but it seemed to only have incapacitated Exile, which of course meant he'd escaped immediately, the coward. Not that she held it against him, retreating when you can't win is the right choice but he _always_ ran away. It had gotten old real quick last time around and it was no less annoying the second time around.

"Hey, on my four o'clock." Doreen said.

America looked behind Doreen, where she'd said, but didn't really see anything.

"Is that Bite-size?" Dante asked.

Looking a bit closer, and higher up, America saw Bite-size's hooded head sticking out, in a color halfway between her usual black and the red of the brick wall.

"Should I go for her?" she asked.

"Better be careful. Iron Heart, fly over that way then loop around to cut off her escape route, Inferno, you go with her, Symbiotes are weak to fire and sound so you should be verry useful if she decides to fight back. The moment they're ready you can go for it Chavez." Daisy said.

“You _do_ know that Gwen beats me in like no time, right?”

“You’ll have me and America with you, three on one shouldn’t be a problem.” Riri said as she flew off, with Dante soon following behind her.

"Are we really sure that we want to fight her?" Kamala asked. "She _did_ help during the chaos of friday, she might be good."

"Good guys don't usually stalk other good guys, Ms.Marvel," Rayshaun said.

"Squirrel Girl once pulled me along as she followed Captain Marvel all over the city, I think that might count as stalking."

"Let's not get into that argument again, okay? I just wanted to see what an Avenger does during a normal day and figured if anybody would be down it'd be her biggest fan."

Kamala's face turned slightly red from embarrassment.

"In position." Riri's voice said over their communicators.

America, launched at Bite-size.

* * *

??? jumped from the wall, swinging towards a more crowded area. They didn't know why their friends had suddenly decided to chase them, but they still weren't ready to talk so they ran.

America was fast, not much faster than them, but fast enough that she'd catch up to them eventually. They took a sharp turn to the left, sensed Iron Heart, and barely dodged below her.

Iron Heart might not be able to hit as hard, had she had a harder dime with sharp turns, but she was faster than either of them if she really pushed it.

They rounded a corner, hoping to escape their friends view for long enough to hide, but Iron Heart was too close.

If their memory served Mr.Negative had a base nearby, it was risky but... They really hoped it wasn't a trap.

??? used the same tricks they'd used last time, quick turns and a change in elevation most flyers weren't used to, to bide their time as they moved towards the criminal hideout.

They kicked in the window, causing a large commotion as Negative's goons prepared for combat. America followed and was greeted by assult-rifeles while Iron Heart, who had hesitated, stayed outside.

??? hurried town the staircase, with a few goons following them, out of the base and into some companies office, entered a bathroom and hid in a stall. There they changed their surface to civilian clothes.

The goons, busted in, kicked the stall door open, saw them acting scared and moved on. After flushing they waled out the front door wearing pants, a jacket and what they hoped looked like convincing brown hair.

As they walked away they noticed Inferno hanging around the building, on the opposite side of Iron Heart.

* * *

After their successful escape they went back to where the fight had been. They kept their disguise on, hoped they wouldn't be noticed again, but that might have been a tad too optimistic.

Not that they were discovered immediately or anything, but she was spying on S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, it couldn't last long. But they still wanted to see Daisy again, even if they couldn't stay long.

So they stayed, followed her friend for a bit after S.H.I.E.L.D. had picked up Sheath. Kept following Daisy when the team split up, possibly to look for Exile and his intangible ally.

They even kept following Daisy on the way back to their base, and when they lost her, they preempted her destination and waited outside of their hide-out.

* * *

It had been five days since Gwen had gone missing, four days since Bite-size started stalking them, and Daisy was starting to go crazy with paranoia. She was seeing Gwen look-a-likes everywhere and in her mind they were always following her. Stalking her.

As soon as she left the base that evening she saw another look-a-like, this one had short, dark hair in a bob cut and a skin-tone too dark to be a suntan but barely dark enough that people would call her black. She wore a red sun-dress.

Soon after Daisy had walked past her the lookalike payed for her drink and left the Café, going in the same direction as her. She almost wanted to have lockjaw just teleport her home or park her car in the base instead, but that was just her paranoia talking.

As usual, when they came to her last turn before the spot where she parked her car, the lookalike went a different way, this time turning the opposite way. The day before she'd gone straight and the day before that she'd entered a building.

it was starting to look less like paranoia and more like she might be right about them, since they always followed her tor two blocks exactly and she could always tell who it was before hand.

She got in her car and drove home.

* * *

??? had settled into a comfortable new routine. Every day they'd plan their next assaults a bit, go over the paperwork Fisk and the Hand had given them, check out one or two new bases. Once that was done they would go see some of their friends, be it Secret Warriors or their band members.

Sometimes they'd stay for an hour other times just for a few minutes, but it was always nice to see them, even if they didn't _talk_ with their friend. Maybe it was more accurate to say _because_ they didn't talk to them, since they still didn't feel ready for that.

Their late afternoon was spent doing whatever, sometimes they'd follow the Secret Warriors on a mission, other times they'd just spend their time thinking, or going to a library, which hadn’t been something either of ???’s parts had wanted to frequent but it was useful when you needed to look things up and didn’t have unlimited wi-fi. Then in the evening they'd follow Daisy for two blocks. ??? hoped they weren't scaring her, but they really wanted to see Daisy every day, even if it was just for the short walk from the base to her car.

At night she'd attack the bases she'd scouted out earlier in the day before going to sleep in an alleyway, which they'd do until late in the morning.

It was comfortable, but that was a problem. In the end they were just prolonging their situation, putting off actually confronting what they were.

But that afternoon they had made some progress: they had decided that 'I think therefore I am' was a good way to think about themselves, and since they experienced the world as a single individual, that meant that they _were_ a single individual.

Considering how long it took to have that breakthrough they decided to visit Glory again. Not because they were ready to talk about themselves but because if they put it off for any longer they might never do it. And for the same reason they'd have to visit Glory immediately, so they did.

The only problem was that Glory wasn't home yet, it _was_ still early in the afternoon after all, so they went looking. The first place they checked was MJ's house, and not only because they recently started dating, it was also a common hang-out spot for the band.

They tried a few more common hang-outs but still found nothing but through sheer luck they stumbled on her and MJ walking bellow their sulking-roof, and yes they had a roof where they usually went to sulk, in fact they had several.

They jumped down into an alleyway and changed their surface, a gray hoodie and black jeans.

"Hey," they said as they came out of the alley.

"Gwen?" ??? cringed internally. "What are you doing here?" MJ asked.

"I... Can I talk to Glory for a bit?"

"Is it urgent?" Glory asked, glancing towards MJ. She and MJ were holding hands, probably on a date, and they really didn't want to interrupt it with their own troubles.

But they had to. "Kinda?"

She looked to MJ, who frowned.

"Why can't you talk to both of us?" she asked.

"Because she doesn't FIGHT ME on EVERYTHING!" ??? shouted. "Sorry. It's... I can't deal with fighting about it. I can't answer questions either, I just need to talk. Talk about things I haven't even wrapped my head around. Sorry, can I just..."

"It's fine. I know I can be a bit much, and we fight often but, I still love you, you know."

"Yeah. Thanks."

Glory took their hand and pulled them back into the alley.

"So what's up?"Glory asked once they were out of earshot of MJ. ??? glanced back, seeing her standing with her back towards them.

"A lot. For starters I'm not 'Gwen' anymore."

"Okaayy."

"Like, I'm Gwen, but also not." They changed their surface again, back to their black one but with their human face still visible. "I'm two in one, human and Symbiote, and I don't think my halves have a normal bond."

"Sorry, what? Can you quickly just explain what 'normal' means in this context."

They sometimes forgot that most people didn’t spend their spare time reading up on superhero stuff. "Oh. Like, you know Venom, the villain slash vigilantly?"

"Yeah.”

"He's a Sybmiote, an alien that bonds with other creatures. People who have bonded with him usually say that he talks to them in his head and they can control each others’ bodies, which can be useful unless he disagrees with what you want to do.

"Anyway I'm not like that. There isn't a voice in Gwen's head there's just me, one personality with the memories and feelings of both halves. The problem is,” they said with some desperation, “I have no idea who I am."

"What can I do to help?"

They threw their hands in the air. "I don't know!" _All_ they knew was that they weren’t making progress fast enough.

"Hey hey, it's alright,” Glorysaid,gently holding their shoulder. How nonchalant it was, despite her knowing their secretmeant more to ??? then they thought it would. “Don't worry, I'll help you figure it out."

"Thanks."

"I'm still your friend, even if you aren't just Gwen anymore.

“So.” Glory paused. “What should I call you?"

"I honestly have no idea.” Glory had stumbled on one of their more ever-present, though relatively small,crises. “What do people usually do when they're suddenly completely different people?"

"I think they'd either go with the same name or just make up a new one."

"Well I'm not sticking with Gwen, it'd feel like I'm leaving out my other half." It was why they’d insisted on thinking of themselves as ??? after all.

"What's your other half called?" Glory probed.

"They don't have a name, they'd only really been around for a few days before the bond."

"Then why don't you make up a name for them, then you could combine the two so you don't leave them out."

"That's a good idea.” Honestly they should have thought of that themselves, but not speaking to people had made it such a low priority to them… “Thanks."

"No problem. So what else do you need to talk about?"

"Can you tell me what gender means? Like, I've never really thought about it. Gwen just always knew she was a girl and the other one had never heard of the concept before."

"I think it's just if you vague impression of what a boy or girl is matches up with your impression of yourself. And if neither fit you say you're neither."

Going by Gwen’s impression of genders they probably fit female about as well as she had, was that all there was to it? "Then, I might be a girl?"

"Okay. If you change your mind that's fine too, you know."

"Thanks." Glory might be going a bit strong with the reassurances, but then that _was_ why they’d chosen to talk to her first.

"Is the Symbiote half also a girl?"

"Yes?" She didn’t feel like a part of her wasn’t female so that should be right.

"You can take your time. You don't need an answer just yet."

"No, I think she's a girl. Like it doesn't really feel wrong to call her that."

"Does it feel wrong to call her a guy?" Glory was surprisingly insightful to her internal monologue, it was almost scary. Or she was just really good at reading Gwen’s face.

"He... Yeah, that doesn't feel right."

"So we're making progress?"

"Yeah. So what do I do about the rest? With who I am and stuff." She didn’t even know where to start on that whole mess. What did people define themselves by other than gender?

"Well, a big part of who you are is what you like, so just try things or do whatever, right?"

"I guess."

"And if you have any problems you can just ask your friends to define you, once they've gotten to know the new you."

Except she still couldn’t let that happen before _she_ had a basic idea of who she wanted to be first.

"Okay. I think you can go back to your date now."

"You sure? MJ can wait if you have more problems."

??? scoffed. "MJ and wait don't really go well together. She's the most impatient person I know."

"She can wait just fine. What she’s impatient for is a chance to change the world, not for her girlfriend to come back from talking with one of our best friends."

"Yeah. I guess you're right.” She felt a fond smile tug on her lips. “But you still shouldn't leave her waiting, right?" ??? gave her a light push.

"Yeah," Glory said as she let herself be shooed back to MJ.

Talking about MJ made Glory’s earlier point about asking friends so much more concrete, making her want to talk with her other friends all the sooner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was a thing I just wrote, hope I didn't offend anybody with it.  
> On a completely unrelated topic, does anybody else think Betty was more interesting in the comics? Is it just her lack of lines combined with a slightly blander character design that makes her seem like a watered down version of her comic incarnation? Does it even mater if she isn't the same character since she's just a civillian friend to one of 9 (including Lockjaw and Tippy) team members?
> 
> As always Comments always make my day and Kuudos help my story get seen as well as help me determin if I'm doing well as a writer.


	4. Chapter 4

Over the past few days the Secret Warriors had tracked down Exile several times, and each time he seemed to get more and more allies,  including a big furry purple man who had almost broken Squirrel  G irls tail called Furball, a pale man who had some sort of smoke related powers called Fume, and a sixth member called Chains.  The most worrying part was how fast his group seemed to be growing, having increased from three on Sunday to six in just four days.

After looking into it she'd realized that most of them had been in a supervillain detention  center before M.O.D.O.K. and The Leader's robot attack on  Friday the week earlier. Hollow in particular had been in the same prison as Exile.  Fume hadn’t been locked up, but he had been working with Furball before the latter got arrested.

She leaned back in the chair, staring at the roof. She'd been working on Exiles new team of evil inhumans for too long, hadn't really been able to deal with the Gwen situation because of it.

Gwen would have been her top priority, she'd have asked someone else to deal with Exile, had it not been for the fact that she was active as a superhero,  targeting several gangs at once it seemed.

At first no one knew for sure who was doing it, she hadn't left any calling-card behind, but as of two nights earlier she'd started to be very clear about who was responsible for it. That, as far as most of the team was concerned, shot down the theory that she was being controlled by Bite-size, though Rayshaun had pointed out that Venom had done similar things in the past without giving his host autonomy.

She left the opps room, needed to  stretch her leggs for a while, and went out to the common room, where Doreen, and Dante were playing videogames while Kamala watched, and Rayshaun was throwing hoops.

She sat down on one of the nearby chairs.

"Do you need to vent?" He asked without looking away from the hoop.

"Maybe. I don’t know…"

"Exile or Gwen?"

She smiled a bit, "And you always say you can’t read people."

"Hey, I know my partn er, don’t need to read you to know what you’re thinking."

"It’s both," she said while staring at the roof. "I’m getting nowhere with Exile, despite working on it for hours, and I just don’t un derstand the Gwen situation."

"What’s there to not understand? Leading theory says she's gone back to being a lone-wolf for a while, nothing strange there."

"But she only talked to Gloria  Grant , and only once in six days."

"So." He glanced her way, trying to read her face.

"Nothing." She knew he was right. Wouldn't be the first time Gwen ghosted people she cared about, probably wouldn't be the last time either. "I guess Bite-size has got me on edge. I keep thinking someone's following me, and they always look like Gwen to me."

"Hold on," Rayshaoun tucked the ball under his arm, "you keep seeing Gwen following you?"

"No, someone who looks like Gwen. Not even by a lot, but for whatever reason that's the impression I get from them."

"Have you written a report on it?"

"No, Rayshaun, I haven't written a report saying that there's always someone who follows me  from here to my car." It was a  ridiculous thing to worry about, especially considering that they never acted  suspiciously.

“Well if you _had_ I would have, I wouldn't have said that she's probably doing her lone-wolf thing.

"I mean, we _know_ Symbiotes have hunted gangs without letting their hosts have any freedom, and we know Bite-size has shape-shifting abilities, so it's not only possible that you _actually_ saw Gwen, it's _likely_."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's just paranoia." She leaned  forward on the table. "What reason would  Bite-size have for following me for two blocks every day?"

"It could be any number of reasons. You could have missed her following your car, or maybe they're trying to learn how to copy you?"

"I suppose that's possible, but if I can recognize her as Gwen I don't think learning how to walk like me should be her top priority if she wanted to copy me."

Rayshaun nodded. "You have a point but we should still check it out, maybe we can blast them with sound at a frequency that's harmless to people, but hurts Symbiotes?"

* * *

??? still wasn't ready to talk to her friends again. Talking to Glory had made it clear that she'd need a name before she came back but picking a name was a big deal, and whatever she picked would stick for the rest of her life (or until she changed it again).

She had an idea, but she wasn't sure if it was good enough yet, so she'd wait for a bit more. Twenty-four hours to be precise, that’s how much she’d let herself put it off. After that she’d talk to her other friends.

Daisy left  Wilson’s Auto shop, where their secret base was located . The other Secret Warriors had already left a while earlier, but Daisy was  usually the last to leave, so nothing new there.

??? left the building across the street and walked briskly in the same  direction as her. She  felt guilty following her friend like that, hoped that Daisy wouldn't mind if she ever decided to tell her, hoped none of them would.

She'd done her best to respect their privacy, she hadn't followed anybody home,  at least not all the way, hadn't followed them for too long, and had only followed them when she figured they'd be fine if she'd hung out with them. 

That meant that she hadn't followed MJ and Glory when it was just the two of them, or when it was Kamala and Dante, or Doreen and Rayshaun. She wasn't sure about that last one, but it was better to  be safe than sorry, especially when it came to respecting peoples privacy .

Her spidey-sen s e went off,  alerting her to several people who had her surrounded. Her first thought was to protect Daisy before she realized that Daisy was one of the sources of danger she'd sensed.

"We won't hurt you." Patriot said as he approached her from behind. She didn't buy it.

Sure, if she let them cuff her they probably wouldn't attack her, but they might rip her apart, not to mention that they were ready to fight her if she tried to run,  judging by Iron Heart aiming  her hand blasters  at her.

She turned around, trying to act like a civilian. "I haven't done anything." she said with her best Boston accent.

"Nothing to worry about. We just need you to put on the cuffs for a minute, and if you're telling the truth we'll let you go." He did his best Captain America smile, which she was absolutely 100% sure he practiced in a mirror.

She approached him slowly, acting scared. "O- Okay." 

Her real goal was to get closer to Iron Heart and Inferno, who radiated some of the strongest danger, together with Daisy, and both of them were too fast for her to run from, Iron Heart in particular since hiding from her was much harder  thanks to A.M.I. , so she'd need to take them down first.

She jumped, ready to lash out wi th her  tongue at Iron Heart, when a sudden piercing sound tore at her mind.

Gwendolyn did her best to cove r her ears. "STOP! PLEASE." Thankfully, s e eing her writhing in pain made Iron Heart turn down the volume significantly, but not enough for her to try to get away again.

"It's for your own good, we just need to get that Symbiote off," Patriot said.

"Who said I wanted that!" She wanted to run, to get away, but she knew she wouldn't be able to.

"As it stands you're clearly a threat to us, so you won't get a choice  on the matter ."

"Yeah, you've been stalking us..." Squirrel Girl trailed off.

"Only in public, and not for long. Is it such a crime for me to miss my friends?"

"I don't by it. You've been obsessing over Quake ever since that thing got a hold of you."

Doreen frowned but before she could say anything America stepped in. "Don't," she said.

"But hasn't she -" Inferno said before Squirrel Girl interrupted him.

"Not really, so we should aaall just ig n ore it." She and America got a few questioning looks from the rest of their team. 

It was clear that they were acting suspicious, thankfully Daisy hadn't caught on as to  _why_ , but it was clear enough to ??? and it was really  embarrassing.

"For now, how about you let us cuff you and take you back to base. We can continue discussing things there," Daisy said calmly, and while ??? did want to talk privately, she'd rather do it  somewhere where her friends couldn't rip her  apart.

She let Daisy cuff her and take her back.

* * *

Daisy hadn't been sure that Bite-size was Gwen, or even that the redhead following her had been Bite-size  until she'd lashed out against Iron Heart, who had blasted her with enough sound to reveal Gwen beneath the Symbiote's surface. 

Bite-size had remained silent until the elevator settled down in their base.

"Could I just tell you, Daisy? And talk to everyone else later?"

"You still think she isn't obsessed with Daisy?" Patriot asked.

"Yes," Doreen and America said in unison.

"You stalked all of us, right? I think we all deserve to hear an explenation," Daisy said.

"Then can I start with you? Or America or Kamala," Gwe-  _Bite-size_ asked.

"Why not Doreen?" Dante asked. "Wasn't she defendin g  you just now?"

"It's fine, I'd probably want to talk with Kamala before me too," Doreen said.

"Fine, start with me," Daisy said as she lightly pushed Bite-size down a hallway, "just keep in mind that I can do the same thing Iron Heart did earlier."

* * *

They entered  the training room. It was a big gray room with overlooking  balconies in the corners, which had been sealed off completely, and two doors  to the main training area , one of which had been sealed leaving only the door they came through,  and no opportunity for Bite-size to escape .

Daisy stayed by the door but indicated to Bite-size to go a bit further.

She cros s ed her arms. "So why'd you stalk us?" 

"I missed- No. I think I have to start at the beginning to really answer that.

"So..." Bite-size stopped for a while,  faking a nervous glance around, stalling. "When Gwendolyn fused with Gwenom to become me- Gwenom is what I call my  S ymbiote half. A-anyway, when I became me I really only wanted to save you from those robots, but after that I realized that I wasn't really Gwendolyn anymore. And then you called me Gwen and I wasn't comfortable  _being_ her, so I left.

"And after that it took me a long time to even figure out  _what_ I was, let alone  _who_ ," Bite-size stepped closer, "but I still missed you guys so whenever I saw you I stuck around for a bit, but-only-in-public." She stepped back again.

"So let me get this straight. You stalked us because you miss e d us."

"Yes." Bite-size nodded once, looking off to the side.

"And you couldn't just talk to us because you had some sort of identity crisis."

"Yes." She nodded again.

_Quite a long-winded way to say what could be_ _summarized_ _in two_ _sentences._

Daisy didn't trust her, the argument was just too flimsy. "If that's true why'd you attack Iron Heart?"

"Because my  spidey-sense told me she was dangerous, and she's too fast for me to get away without at least stunning her first."

"Okay. So what's this about you 'obsessing over me'. America and Doreen insisted a bit too strongly that it was nothing."

"Yeah, so I'm- I- This is kind of hard to say, even after that whole other thing. Uhhm." She kept stalling. "So I wo u ldn't call it 'obsessed'. It's just a crush." Gwen talked faster. "And I  _was_ going to check if you'd ever date a girl before telling you, and if not I'd say nothing and just hope it goes away, but then I became me and I had to deal with that whole mess, and Rayshaun just had to say I was obsessed which is just rude. And, and..." 

_Bite-size_ certainly  _talked_ like Gwen, and even cuffed her hands moved around a bunch while she talked. Not to mention her nervous fidgeting seemed on point for what she'd expect from Gwen after she just confessed a crush... Gwen kept fidgeting. She was crushing on Daisy? Since when?

"You said 'and then I became me', so your crush was since before then?"

Gwen's fidgeting died down, was pushed down, knowing Gwen. "Gwendolyn had a crush on you. Gwenom had never even heard of you before she became me." 

_Why_ _do_ _you_ _keep_ _talk_ _ing about yourself_ _in_ _the_ _third person._ "So if you aren't 'Gwendolyn' or 'Gwenom', who are you?"

"I'm Gwen." She said, smiling through her mask. "I'm thinking of legally changing my name. I actually wasn't sure if that's enough, I don't want my friends to think of me as Gwendolyn just because her nickname is the same as my name, but I also don't want to have to correct everyone else I know on my new name all the time and they really don't need to know about how I'm a completely different person or anything." 

That just  confused Daisy even more. "What do you mean,  you're 'a different person'? How are you different?"

"Well I'm both Gwendolyn and Gwenom, and not just in a 'we are Venom' kind of way, but a proper fusion. Like mitochondria are a part of cells even though they have separate genomes, or how Lichen is actually a mushroom and algae but the’ve functionally become one organism."

"But Gwendolyn and Gwenom have seperate brains, or whatever it is that Klyntars use to think." She knew they had some link, but even so...

"But I only have one train of thought. My halves have a stronger mental connection than what I've heard described before." That...

"That sounds fishy. How do I know this isn't just Gwenom  controlling Gwendolyn's body? Venom has been known to do it so we know it's possible." She was just about ready to accept that Gwendolyn wasn't held hostage before she said that, but it really just sounded like a preemptive excuse for any personality change.

"Maybe  R iri can scan my brain? Or a S.H.I.E.L.D. doctor can do it? I don't know. How can you  prove that you use your brain to think? Other than by lobotomizing someone."

* * *

Daisy kept questioning her for a while after that. Gwen wasn't sure if she'd managed to convince her that everything was fine, and she supposed that made sense but it still hurt, like her  existence had been rejected by her crush.

When Daisy left she just wanted to ball up in the fetal position and cry for an hour, inst e ad she'd have to deal with whoever Daisy decided to send in next. She sa t down at the wall while she waited.

By the time Kamala came in, which couldn't have been more than a minute later, she was already crying.

"Hey, hey. What's wrong?" Kamala  asked when she sat down next to her.

She really wished that she would just be left alone. "Nothing." She wiped at her face, even though she probably could have just absorbed the tears with her outer layer. In fact she wasn't sure if they had even been visible.

"Do you want a hug? For no reason at all." Kamalas eyes were full of sympathy.

She probably thought she was talking to Gwendolyn, which hurt in it's own way but it was still better than risking the same treatment she'd gotten from Daisy, so she didn't correct her.

After sitting quietly for a while, Gwen didn't know how long, she glanced at Kamala, who had waited patiently for her to be ready. Kamala smiled a sympathetic smile at her. 

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really." She looked away.

"They might want to send in the next person soon. Should be America.  Would talking to her be better? " She didn't want to talk to anyone.

"I want to go to bed. Do you think we have a cell for me somewhere? Then we could just wait until tomorrow for the others."

"I could ask after I leave,  but we weren’t really supposed to fight bad-guys in the first place so I don’t think so ." Kamala still didn't move, hadn't touched her at all. Gwen wasn't sure if that was because of Gwenom covering her entire body, or if it was because Kamala respected her personal space.

"Thanks." She considered being silent for the rest of her time with Kamala, but after America they'd send Doreen, then  Dante followed by Riri , and last would be Rayshaun. At least if they were trying to send people in the order she wanted to talk to them in, which the fact that they sent Kamala and then America probably meant.

That was good, she might even be able to sit out America's time, and if she was lucky Doreen would try to distract her, but after that the others would probably ask questions. Rayshaun worst of all, and if she hadn't gotten her shit together by then she'd probably do something she'd regret, either because he would assume her guilt or because she'd let he r self get provoked.

"Do you think Riri could prove that I'm not being mind controlled by an evil Symbiote?" she asked.

"Maybe, I could ask that too. Is that why you're not happy? Did Daisy think you were just mind controlled?"

"Yeah." Gwen stayed quiet for a few seconds before she decided to keep going. "I'm actually both Gwendolyn and the Symbiote, which I call Gwenom. I don't experience any  separation between my halves at all but when I told Daisy, she didn't believe me.

"She basically said that I don't exist."

"That must have hurt." Gwen felt herself tearing up again. She didn't want to be there, didn't want her friends to interrogate her, but it was too late for that. 

She turned to Kamala. "I think I want that hug now." She held her arms out to Kamala who didn't hesitate to hug her. It felt nice. Felt like Kamala had accepted her just like Glory had. "The worst part is that I still have a crush on her."

Kamala 's hea d shot back to get a look at her face. "What! You have a crush on her and she treated you like you don't even  _exist_ ? When they kick me out of here I'm gonna have to talk some sense into her for sure!"

"You don't have to. If you could talk to Riri that's really enough."

"What about finding a bed for you?" Kamala asked.

"I... I think I can manage now. Turns out  hugs and being accepted really help."

* * *

Daisy told Kamala her time was up a bit later, apparently she'd spent twenty minutes with the younger girl.

America wasn't too upset about the stalking, apparently loosing both your parents and leaving your home dimension forever makes you understand a thing or two about missing people. She was  somewhat s k eptical about what Gwen was but at the end int seemed like she accepted her story.

Dante was next, contrary to her earlier guess. She got along with him well enough, maybe because he reminded her of Kevin, maybe because he asked for help from her all the time. Whenever they sparred he wanted pointers on how to get better, and she often helped on his solo training  aswell .

He didn't feel too strongly about the stalking and tried his best to understand when she explained about how Gwendolyn and Gwenom had fused to become her  but she got the feeling he didn’t really  _get it._ . By the looks of things either Kamala had told him to be accepting or he'd noticed her  attitude when she left and decided to follow her lead.

Then it was Doreen's turn.

"Heya Gwen!"

"So, ah... I'm not-" Even after having done it five times already, which was kind of mind blowing honestly, it was still hard to explain who she was. She hadn't even settled on Gwen yet! But she needed to use something. 

"Would you prefer Bite-size? I mean you're still wearing it even though it can totally  shape-shift right."

She  _had_ done it for a reason,  _that_ reason, in a way. She had kept her outside as 'Bite-size' so that her friends wouldn't think of her as just Gwendolyn, to remind them of Gwenom.  She’d had… mixed success with that.

"Don't call her an it. And Bite-size? Really?"

"Well the hood is a mouth and you have a tongue as a scarf." Doreen pointed at her tongue. Which she could, and had used in battle. For the record if she wanted to she could bite down with her hood as well.

"Yeah, alright, but couldn't you have come up with a better name? Kind of make's me sound small."

"We could have called you Over-bite."

"That's  _so_ much worse." No  offense to people with an overbite or anything but Gwen didn't think that sounded like super-anything's name.

"I know right! Bite-size was my idea. You think it's small  until you see the hood, and that's when you realize you've bitte n off more than you could chew," Doreen said in her movie-trailer voice.

"An d that's what you were thinking when you thought I was an evil stalker?"

"Eh. You were a loose cannon vigilanty at worst. Actually going by what Riri said you were probably only trying to preempt an attack against you by stalking us.

“Far as I was concerned you were really only an active threat to your host." The way Doreen phrased it sounded suspiciously like she still thought of 'Bite-size', of Gwenom, as separate from Gwendolyn. 

"So who do you think you're talking to? Bite-size or Gwendolyn Stacey?"

"Gwen?"

"Both actually."

* * *

Doreen seemed to have enjoyed her talk with Bite-size and/or Gwen. 

Riri wasn't too sure of what to expect from her, everyone had come out with a different expression. Daisy obviously didn't trust her. Kamala had come out angry, and had gone right to her to ask if she could make a brain scan to see if Gwen was being mind-controlled, which she had thought meant she wanted to  prove that that was the case,  until she noticed Kamala glaring at Daisy. 

Brai n- scans were not really an option though, it'd be too complicated and you'd need data from an actual case of mind control by  a Klyntar to compare it with . 

America had seemed cautious, she didn't really know what to make of it, and Dante was expressionless as he fiddled with his phone.

Next was Riri's turn so she went inside.  The training room had been put in  lock-down mode, which was really made in case one of them wanted to test the limits of their destructive capabilities, not to lock someone in. 

The blast the blast shutters over the balconies could handle severe explosions as well as  lasers with only mild damage, but you could still see through them from the other side, if only with the lights off, which meant the rest of the team could safely see just how strong their teammates were. 

Everything on the lower area was even  tougher , capable of withstanding an actual  _Hulk_ ! Even the doors, when in lock-down mode, wouldn’t break from a serious smash or two.  The walls were also outfitted with sensors to help measure hulk level destructive capabilities, in case the training dummies completely broke down.

"So..." Riri said. "Apparently I'm next."

"Yeah. Anything in particular you want to ask?"

"Not really. But I want to just say that being stalked, as a powerless fifteen-year-old who can't take her  super-suit with her wherever she goes, that's scary. Especially when the stalker is supposedly a serious threat for  _superheroes_ ."

"Sorry." Bite-sized looked ashamed, but she wasn't going to be forgiven that easily.

"So why'd you do it?"

"I was going through some stuff, wasn't ready to talk to anyone really, but I still missed my friends so if I saw you out and about I stayed close by for a bit." That... didn't sound like stalking.

"That was all you did?" She set fact-checking that as a priority task for A.M.I., she'd go over all incident  reports the team had written about Bite-size to determine the  likelihood that she was telling the truth.

"Yeah. Okay, I  _did_ follow Daisy back here  _once_ , after your fight with Exile when I had gotten away from you."

"You mean after you led us into a trap." They'd been lucky America was the only one who had followed Bite-size. Sure,  _she_ would probably have survived but if it had been Inferno, he'd be dead or, if they were really lucky, in the hospital.

"I led you into the hideout of some villain called Mr.Negative. I was going to tie them up for the police eventually but I'm guessing you took care of that?"

"Yeah." She frowned behind her mask. "Did you know  Inferno was following you?"

"Actually, no, which is really strange since my  spidey-sense  should have caught him, but I guess he wasn't very threatening?"

* * *

Gwen had fealt good about most of her talks before then, Daisy was really the only one she  _knew_ hadn't taken it well. Kamala had been nice, she had won over America, and both Dante and Doreen had been supportive. Riri... She was unsure.

What she was sure of was that Rayshaun wouldn't be on her side. 

Patriot entered. Not Rayshaun, Patriot. This was, a proper interrogation by someone who wasn't ready to be charitable _at all_.

She hoped he'd at least let her explain herself. Which... he did, not that he seemed to believe her.

"So what about your obsession with Daisy? Even by your own account you went out of your way to stalk her,  w hich you claim you never really did for anybody else."

"Yeah." She swallowed down any hostile remarks that almost left her mouth. "Have you never had a crush in your life or are you just stupid?"  _Allmost_ all of them. "Actually scratch that, have you never even seen a teen-drama where the main character has a crush on someone?"

"Sorry, what?"

"You heard me. I had told literally _one_ person about it before, no one even knew I liked girls! _I_ didn't even know until maybe two weeks ago! Now you forced me to tell _everyone_ , because Daisy didn't trust me enough to tell you to ignore it.

" Thanks for that."

"I'm sorry? I was worried about her, she's my  _partner_ , probably my best friend too, was I  _not_ supposed to mention your obvious fixation with our leader?"

"Well the first time you saw me was when I  _saved_ her, so it'd be nice if you hadn't assumed I wanted to hurt her."

"You  _know_ that assuming things like that is dangerous,  _life threatening_ , out in the field.  _If_ what you're saying is true, then I'm sorry you had to tell everyone, but you really shouldn't have stalked her in the first place."

"How often do I need to tell you that I barely even followed her. This is like the murder accusation all over again!"

It didn't get any better from there,  and mire than once she started shouting at him. No matter what, he’d never trust her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed. All comments bring me joy, and the Kudo/view ratios help me know how good it is.
> 
> Also: sorry for the delay, still not used to having chapters this long so editing takes a bit more time.


	5. Chapter 5

Daisy wasn't sure what to do. Bite-size, or Gwen, or whoever she was, hadn't really done much, legally speaking. They could get a restraining order on her, but other than that there wasn't much they could do, again legally speaking.

On the other hand, some of the things she’d said and done were suspicious, especially the claim that she was now a completely different person and her attack on Iron Heart.

She understood the reasoning, her spidey-sense tells her about the sonic weapons aimed at her and she knows getting away would be difficult, as proven by her last escape, but the Gwen she knew, Gwendolyn, wouldn't have done that. The question was if that was because Gwenom was in charge or because, as she claimed, she was a different person.

If it was Gwenom, then they'd have her on kidnapping as well, which would get her sentenced to prison, but if it wasn't then would they even want a restraining order.

She needed help, and there was only one person she knew who had the experience she needed: Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel. Honestly Spider-Man or one of the good Symbiotes might have been better, wasn't like Carol had run into Klyntar's all that often, but she didn't know any of them well enough to ask for help with this.

She sent a message to Carol, asking if they could meet up later that night.

Her team wasn't done interrogating Gwen, they'd probably have to compare notes once they were done, but for now she'd need to be ready in case Bite-sized tried to escape. She also wanted to prepare for what to do afterwards.

"Iron Heart, can you watch the door while I make preparations?"

"A.M.I. is already monitoring the room, I should know if anything happens before she manages to escape."

"Good. Be ready just in case."

Daisy prepared one of the sleeping rooms. They all had a designated room for themselves, but Patriot was the only one who was actually living there, everybody else either lived with their parents, or in her and Chavez's case their own homes, or had most of their things there.

The room Daisy prepped wasn't Gwen’s, but an empty one, and she made sure that it was properly sealed with the only exception being the vents.

Once she returned she'd ask Riri to whip something up to secure the vents, or at least alert them if a Klyntar tried to reach through.

~~~

"Bite-size." The younger woman flinched, but didn't move. "We're not going to arrest you, but I'd appreciate it if you stayed in a room we've prepared for you, at least until tomorrow morning." Technically she could hold Bite-size for twenty four hours without arresting her but it would be better if it was voluntary.

"I... I was planning to hit another gang base tonight," Bite-size said, still motionless.

"You can say no, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't. I don't know how to handle the situation so I'm meeting with Captain Marvel later tonight to discuss it with her. I'll let you know what we decide to do in the morning."

Bite-size looked her in the eyes. "Is there a chance you'll ambush me and try to tear me apart?"

"I..." Hiding the truth would be be better for her. "Yes." But she wanted to build some trust between them, in case they decided to let the 'new Gwen' be a part of the team. "Part of the reason I'm asking is so we won't have to track you down if we decide that that's what we have to do."

"Okay." Gwen stood up and, with her head hanging low, she followed her. First to the toilet, then to the room Daisy had prepared.

When she had locked the door behind Bite-size Kamala surprised her.

"I can't believe that you locked our friend in a cell," she said with a glare.

"Technically it's just a bedroom since we don't have any actual cells here."

"That's beside the point! She's our friend, friends don't lock friends up."

"I asked if she'd let me first, Kamala. And I would have let her go if she said no." Daisy let out a sigh. "I really don't know what to do with her. If we're lucky she really is a fusion of both personalities and decides to keep being a hero, but there's a chance that she's lying, or that she isn't as heroic anymore."

"So give her a chance to prove it."

"I'll talk it over with Captain Marvel. If she agrees with you I'll let her back on the team, but only if the rest of you keep your guard up, at least for a little while." Daisy wasn't forcing her guard up for nothing, she'd read the reports on villains like the Purple Man and it really seemed like mind-control was the worst thing you could experience. If Gwen was going through that... she'd have to make sure to notice even the smallest sign. show that she's forcing her guard up, in the previous sections. previous chapter too if you haven't uploaded it yet.

* * *

Gwen had had a nightmare that night, it had been about all of her friends deciding that she wasn't real, just some act by Gwenom. Basically she'd dreamt that everybody had reacted like Daisy and Rayshaun had.

When she woke up she was disoriented and confused. It felt like she wasn’t just in the bed but in every nook and cranny of the room, filling the whole space. She was spread thin and most of her was dying. She looked around and saw the whole room from every angle, saw that it was covered in spiders, and felt herself inside of the spiders.

She pulled herself together, moved the spiders back into her surface and ate herself. She had no idea how long she'd been like that, but she knew that she couldn't have lasted for much longer, the spiders would have died.

She stayed on her bed, without moving, until she heard a knock on the door.

"I know what we'll do with you." Daisy's voice said through the vents, the door was too reinforced to let any sound other than banging through. "Whenever you're ready I'll let you out."

"Okay." She stood up. "I'm ready."

Daisy opened the door. "We've decided to trust you."

Gwen couldn't believe her ears, after their talk the previous evening she'd been sure that Daisy thought she was an evil mind-controlling Symbiote, but now she said she'd trust Gwen... She felt her eyes getting wet.

"If you want, you're free to join the team again, or you can keep attacking gangs on your own. Exile's back by the way, he and Sheath broke out of prison last week and we're working on tracking them down."

Gwen stopped for a second. "Sheath..." She didn't want to be reminded of that.

"Actually, didn't you see her when we fought them a while ago."

"Yeah. I want to help catch her again, but Murderdock is a higher priority right now, even if I haven't been very successful in baiting him out."

"Is that what you were doing?" Daisy glanced her way.

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, just looked like you were attacking gangs to me."

"Supposedly he's an ally of them, but I'm surprised he hasn't made any moves lately. " She hung her head. "He probably knows he's under surveillance," Gwen said as they arrived in the common room.

"Could be. Or, if he's as manipulative as you say he is, he wanted you to attack those gangs."

Gwen stopped. She had assumed the Hand and Fisk had cooperated because they wanted Murderdock dead, so a cost free way to hurt him would be nice, but they could have just given her a list of their enemies. And none of them would assume that a hero was working for Fisk so they’d avoid any retaliation they’d get if they had attacked themselves.

"Webs!" He'd even said it would be productive. Not fun, productive! He had told her that it would be about business and she hadn't realized for weeks! "Fisk and the Hand benefited from every one of my attacks."

Daisy put a hand on her shoulder. "At least we know now."

"Sure, but that doesn't make me want to punch Murderdock’s face in any less."

She noticed Daisy backing off a bit. "I'm going to the training room."

* * *

When Dante arrived at the base, having gone there as soon as he got out of school, he immediately went to the training room. They had all met up in the morning to talk about Gwen but before he could get some morning exercise Gwen had taken the whole room for herself. Just from peaking inside he’d been able to tell that he did not want to get in-between Gwen and those training robots, so he'd waited.

The automatic doors swung open and, too his surprise, he saw Gwen fighting some more robots. She was wearing her Ghost spider suit, not her Bite-size one, so maybe it was fine if he joined her? He wasn’t sure.

"Have you been going at it since this morning?"

Gwen put some distance between herself and the bots. "No, I took a few breaks in between."

"Unless those breaks totaled at least an hour the answer you're looking for is 'yes, Dante, I have'."

She chuckled. "Okay, fine: I did. But there wasn't anything better I could do on my own."

"Isn't Daisy here? Or Rayshaun?" They had jobs at S.H.I.E.L.D. so they sometimes had to go on missions, but their primary mission was to train the Secret Warriors.

He had no idea how Captain Marvel had convinced Fury to allow that, but maybe all he’d done was allow them un-payed time off for it. Maybe Stark was writing their checks while they were with the team.

Gwen Rubbed her neck. "Ah, well, I'm not sure doing things with them is such a good idea right now. Pretty sure they wouldn't want to at least." She went back on the offensive, after dodging an attack she couldn’t have seen, punching the robots while holding back.

"Then how about going back to school? Daisy said Murderdock probably wouldn't attack you, and even if he did, you've got your powers back right?"

"Well, Gwenom has a few more powers than Gwendolyn used to have, but," she grunted as she took a robot fist to the gut, "sure, basically."

"So how about it? I can't imagine skipping so many classes wouldn't be reflected in your final grades."

"Between being Ghost-Spider for the whole year and hunting Sheath for weeks, if I skip any more they might not let me graduate, but right now I'm still officially in protective custody. I'm starting again next week, though." Gwen shot a web at the stop button, pausing the robots' assault on her. "Wanna spar with me or should we take on the training dummies together?"

"Is it even safe for us to spar anymore? I mean Rayshaun said Symbiotes are weak to fire?"

"We could find out."

* * *

Gwen got a short break while the automatic clearing system pushed away any straggling robots and some derbies from whenever Gwen hadn't held back enough. That wasn’t usually a problem for Gwendolyn (it was too soon to say for herself), but then neither was dealing with Murderdock.

She jumped to her feet. She recovered faster than Gwendolyn used to, so she was pretty much in peak condition already. According to the limit tests she did before fighting the robots she was also stronger than Gwendolyn used to be, so all in all she was an upgrade.

They got ready for their sparring match, which meant flying up into the air for Inferno and for Gwen it just meant waiting until Inferno was ready before counting down.

"3... 2... 1..."

Inferno shot a fire-blast at her, but failed completely to hit while Gwen, even mid dodge, pelted him with web bullets.

She didn't really change her usual strategy for fighting Inferno, starting with mid-range web-attacks before finishing him with punches and kicks. With most flying opponents she'd use her webs to finish them if she could, but she already knew that Inferno could burn through them so that was out.

"You know I can do this all day, did do this all day." Inferno balled his fist, and with building frustration fired another blast of fire, which she easily dodged. " You're gonna have to do better than that."

Inferno released a wave of fire that would cover half the room in flames which was good because it was harder to dodge, but bad for several reasons. If they were fighting in a city, which they were more often than not, that'd risk hitting civilians so you couldn't use that strategy too often, it also wouldn't be as effective in an open space, but in this case it was bad because it also blocked his view.

She jumped while pulling herself with her webs for an extra boost and got behind him, ready to punch.

Her sipdey-sense just barely alerted her to the fire before Infernos entire body shot out flames.

She fell to the floor, severely burnt on both her arms and legs, as well as her sides. She'd managed to protect her vitals, thank god, but it was bad.

Inferno landed next to the emergency med-kit and pulled it off, starting the injury alarm.

* * *

Daisy heard the alarm just as she got the notification on her phone. If she didn't respond to it within two minute S.H.I.E.L.D. medics would come running assuming, correctly or not, that the injuries were really bad.

When she got to the training room, the alarm speakers where saying the location in a repeating loop, she saw Dante trying, incorrectly to treat burns all over Gwen's arms and legs. Gwenom had thinned out, but was trying her best to cover the damaged areas.

"Move!" She told him, and he did, stumbling to the side.

"Gwenom, let me..." Gwenom moved aside on the arm she was holding.

"We're not separate..." Gwen said through gritted teeth, her eyes clenched in pain. "And I think my healing factor's better than anything that gauze can do."

"We can't know that for sure." Daisy kept working, moving on to Gwen's other arm. "And even if you're right, it can't hurt right."

"Unless my outer layer is more effective." Gwenom kept covering her arm. "I think it is." Gwen tried to pull herself up, but recoiled as soon as her knees touched the ground.

"Let me help," Daisy said as she reached for Gwen's upper arm.

* * *

Gwen was lying in her bed. It wasn't the bed she usually slept in, that one was at home, but it was still hers, unlike the one she spent the previous night in. Her arms and legs hurt whenever she moved them so she wasn't moving. If it had been an option she'd have watched TV or something but her side was burnt too so she could only lie on her back, listen to music (thankfully she’d gotten Gwendolyn’s phone back), and sulk.

She wasn't sulking because she lost or because she got hurt, if her teammates got better that was good and she got hurt all the time. No, she sulked because despite having gotten stronger Dante won with an attack she'd usually shrug off.

Up until earlier in the day she hadn’t really put much thought into whether she was better or worse than Gwendolyn, but the numbers had told her she was better, which felt nice. It was something to justify her existence when it felt like everybody around her, okay, Daisy mostly but to a lesser extent everybody else, would have been happier if Gwendolyn had just stayed Gwendolyn.

She also had other powers, she could change her outer layer for stealth or just to quickly change into her costume (no more clothing stashes around the city for her). She also had a tongue she could use as a third arm and that thing she did with the spiders, if she could figure out how she did that.

But what good was that extra umpf or neat little powers when all it’d take to defeat her was a flamethrower. Or hell, a matchstick by the looks of it. Maybe a torch?

She'd heard that Symbiotes were weak to fire and sound, but to be destroyed so easily was beyond her expectations, it had been as though her outer layer was made of butter, including the frying her skin part, which was less than useful.

Gwen’s stomach rumbled, healing should require a lot of food, just logically, but it didn't usually affect her that much. Then again, she was also regrowing her outer layer.

"HEEEY!" She shouted out of her open door as she pulled her right earbud out.

"WHAT?" Dante answered.

"I'M HUNGRY, CAN YOU BRING ME SOMETHING TO EAT?"

It didn't take long before he came into her room with four sandwiches, two PB&J and two with ham and cheese.

"You sure you’re gonna be fine?"

"I told you already, it hurts to move now but I’ll be fine in a couple of hours." It really wasn’t a big deal at all, but both Dante and Daisy had fussed for a good ten minutes before leaving her alone.

"Well if there’s anything else I can do-"

"Then I’ll call you. Yes. Now go, I’m busy sulking over my humiliating loss."

Dante left the room with a sympathetic smile. She really couldn’t stay mad at him, which is why she was more mad with herself than anybody else. Frustrated at her weakness.

* * *

Gwen eventually moved on from self pity to try being constructive. She was sure there were ways around her weakness. She could, for example get a special heat and flame resistant suit made, for whenever she went up against someone likely to use fire against her, or she and Daisy could think something up to somehow avoid the flames?

On that note S.H.I.E.L.D. might have some ideas and Gwendolyn had toyed with the idea of joining them in the past. She’d certainly help a lot of people that way, even more so with her stealth powers and maybe even the spiders? She could totally spy on an entire building at once with it while being almost invisible.

It could also be an excuse for how she met Daisy if Gwendolyn’s dad ever saw them together, seeing as he knew her as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Johnson.

* * *

By evening her wounds had mostly healed. Okay, so they were maybe half way there, but she could move without hurting so as far as Gwen was concerned she was fine. Daisy hadn't agreed but she did concede that Gwen hadn't needed any first aid after her complete defeat by Inferno, and had let her leave as long as she promised to be careful and not web-sling.

So she walked. It wasn't late yet, but it was getting dark so if she really wanted to take it easy she should avoid the worse neighborhoods... Or go straight to the police station. It was closer than her house and she'd be able to meet George Stacey sooner that way.

Gwendolyn hadn't always gotten along well with her father, especially regarding Ghost-Spider but also just as an angsty teen girl with a single father, that didn't change that she loved him.

Gwen loved him. She hadn't figured out what it meant that he was the father of one of her halves, if that made him her dad or not, but she had still missed him.

She jogged to the police station, said hi to the officer at the desk and kept walking in to George's office. It felt weird to call him George, it'd be even weirder to say it out loud without explaining her situation so she decided against it.

"Hi dad."

George looked up. "Gwen! What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be in protective custody?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks it's safe to come back home now, doesn't look like the suspect will make a move anymore." That was mostly her own thoughts, but that didn't matter, she had the power to defend herself if he tried anything.

"So he's still out there?" George frowned.

"Yeah, they'll keep an eye on him though." She moved around his desk to give him a hug.

"That's something at least." He patted her back.

"Can't catch them all, dad."

"Don't I know it." He leaned back before stretching. "Not gonna stop your old man from trying though."

She gave him another hug and kissed his cheek. "And that's why you'll always be my hero."

George smiled. "And here I thought that would be some rock-star somewhere. Maybe that one lady, what was her name? The I love Rock n’ Roll one? Or that drummer from seven nation army."

"Joan Jett and Meg White?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah, them."

"I look up to them sure, but neither of them are my hero."

"Is that right," he said, not asked, with a smirk. "So what do you want then, a new drum-set maybe?"

"No." She'd just missed him. "I just want to go home with you.

"Speaking of heroes though, I was thinking of maybe joining S.H.I.E.L.D. do you think I could get in?" She was pretty sure she could do it, Gwendolyn had gotten more than enough training as Ghost spider, both when it came to fights and stealth. As for the investigative side, her dad had covered that over her entire childhood so Gwen was confident in that area too.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.? Do you really want to do something so dangerous? I thought you wanted to be a rock-star with your friends."

"I do." She said sincerely, before deflating. "I don't know, I like the idea of saving people too, you know. Putting away bad guys, like you always do." What she always tried to do as Ghost-Spider.

"But you'd rather do it at S.H.I.E.L.D. than with the police?"

"It was just a thought, dad." She hoped this wasn't insecurity about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operating scale, the police were just as necessary in her eyes, but S.H.I.E.L.D. was were she could make the most use of her powers. Even more so than as Ghost-Spider. "Thinking about what to do after high-school. Isn't that what parents always tell their kids to do."

"It's a bit late to change your plans from music collage to S.H.I.E.L.D. training, Gwen. That change is big so you'll need a completely different skill-set."

"So help me train? I'll see if it's something for me and then I'll make my decision last minute like everybody else."

George sighed. "I'll think about that later, so why don't you let me get back to work so we can head home before midnight."

"Alright." She gave him another kiss on the cheek. "Love you."

* * *

She yet again spent her time quietly with just music playing in her ears, but she didn't mind this time. She watched Gwendolyn's father work, going over the bigger profile cases, delegating officers, and just generally doing a lot of paperwork.

Being a police chief meant he wouldn't be personally involved in many cases but she knew for a fact that that didn't mean he wasn't putting away the bad guys anymore. On the contrary almost every arrest in the his district could in some small part be attributed to him.

Even when the arrest was a citizens arrest by a superhero it was still his men who had to gather the evidence left on the scene and build the case that would actually put the criminals behind bars.

She looked out of the office, through the glass walls, to see the detectives, Sergeant and officers milling about. Among them was Jean DeWolff George's old partner, who he'd trained when she'd just become a detective. She'd been around for much of Gwendolyn's childhood, had kept her company while she waited for George to finish some paperwork or another.

She hadn't realized before but Sarah, from Gwendolyn's S.H.I.E.L.D. protective detail, was a lot like Detective DeWolff, maybe that's why she had gotten along with her so quickly.

She stood up and took a peak at George's paperwork. She recognized the prisoner transport forms, Gwendolyn had seen a lot of police forms growing up so she'd recognize most of the relatively quickly.

"Why are you requesting prisoner transport from S.H.I.E.L.D.? Are there a lot of super-crooks in your cells?"

S.H.I.E.L.D. or top heroes like the Avengers would usually move super-powered villains to special prisons like the Cube whenever they had the time, or on an irregular schedule but even more common for the big threats was for S.H.I.E.L.D. to arrive early enough to take them from the arrest site, or at the very least arrive without a formal request. That meant that most of the time the super-villains in NYPD custody were small-time ones or those that could be held in normal cells.

"There's some, but I'm mostly just concerned about one of them, Piledriver from the Wrecking Crew. He was the only one arrested, which means his friends will probably show up to free him if we don't get him out fast."

"That does sound like trouble. They've got super-strength right? Could bust down the whole building to free him?" Gwendolyn had read the files, of course, skimmed actually like she'd done with most of them but it was enough to give her an understanding of how a battle would play out.

Before joining the Secret Warriors she'd also looked up what other heroes had written or said publicly about most villains she'd heard off so it was a lot more than just the S.H.I.E.L.D. files she had to go on.

"Just one of them could do that," George said with a frown, if they tried a lot of his men would probably die. Gwen wasn't surprised though, they were punching in her weight class after all, all of them were stronger but not by a huge amount.

"So how is he locked up? Did you use special handcuffs on him?"

"You know we've got power dampeners in some of our cells just for people like him,but yeah, would be hard even with that.

"Turns out the Wrecking crew actually doesn't have super-strength, just their leader does and he's got some power sharing ability to make the rest of them strong. One of my officers got lucky and saw him out on the streets just a short while before he was supposed to recharge and we arrested him just half an hour later."

"Ah." Gwen hadn't known that, but most of the time you wouldn't be fighting the Wrecking Crew without their leader. That was why, she supposed, but she'd missed an important detail so she told herself she'd go over the files more carefully, starting with the Wrecking Crew.

After that she went back to her chair, kept silently watching as he finished his work. Then happily sat in the car as he drove them home. Gwendolyn's home? No, she thought of it as home, and Gwenom hadn't had a home before, so it was her home. Gwen's, Gwendolyn's and Gwenom’s, home.

She'd missed it.

* * *

Glory woke up to a Slew of messages in the band group chat. And one from her girlfriend, which she checked first.

MJ❤️ yesterday 23:56

[I know she already told you what's up, but I'm dying to find out]

[try to be there]

Who has told her about what? She checked the band chat.

Gwen yesterday 23:55

[I'm back.]

She shot out of her bed. It had only been a couple of days since they talked, but Gwen had been clear about not being ready yet. Apparently things had changed.

MJ

[Band meting at 8 am, Gwens place]

[You'd better be there.]

Gwen

[ok]

Betty today 00:02

[👍]

She sent a message back,

Glory today 07:14

[I'll be there]

and then went to get breakfast.

* * *

She knocked on Not-Gwen's door (she still didn't know what she should call her friend, so that would have to do). It was Captains Stacey who opened it.

"GWEN, GLORY'S HERE."

"Hi, Captain Stacey. Is she still in bed?"

"Yeah." He yawned. "We stayed up quite late just watching TV together. Don't even remember falling asleep, but she somehow made it to her bed." He opened the door to let her in.

They didn't hang out at Not-Gwen's house very often, but often enough for her to be relatively comfortable on the Stacey couch. Neither of the others were there.

"Is the rest of the band coming too or is it just you?"

"All of us. We haven't spoken to her in two weeks so MJ got all excited and called a band meeting here. We might steal her away to practice afterwards."

"Alright then, you girls have fun." The captain meandered over to the kitchen and started preparing his and Gwen's breakfast.

It didn't take long before the other two showed up, short enough time that Not-Gwen was still in her room, assuming she hadn't left the house on Ghost-Spider business.

"Hey, tiger," MJ said as she crawled onto the couch next to her.

"Hey yourself, MJ." She kissed the other girl, who retaliated in kind.

She didn't know what it was about MJ's lips that made them feel so good. It could be because she kept good care of them, they were really soft and smooth, it could be the way MJ's hands tangled in her hair that made her feel so wanted whenever they kissed, could be MJ's smell that enveloped her, or it was just MJ herself, the fact that it was the girl Glory liked so much, maybe even loved.

"Not to interrupt you two in your couple-time, but am I just supposed to stand here?" Betty asked, standing at the foot end of the couch. Glory hadn't even realized that they had stretched to take up the whole thing in their impromptu make-out session.

"Sorry," she said as she pulled her legs in.

"You're lucky you're my friend or I'd retaliate for you interrupting us," MJ said, but she still did as she was asked.

"Have you girls all had breakfast?" Captain Stacey asked from the kitchen doorway.

"Yeah." Glory answered. MJ nodded but Betty stood up.

"Actually I haven't, I kind of woke up late for the band meeting." She hurried to the kitchen, leaving Glory and MJ alone on the couch again.

"Right. Help yourself to some eggs and bacon then. And I do take requests if you're willing to wait some." Captain Stacey poked his head out again. "Also, congratulations on the relationship you two, didn't know you started dating."

Glory felt her face heat up, but MJ, still half on top of her just beamed the most brilliant smile at him. "Thanks!"

* * *

Ten minutes after Betty had left them alone MJ started to get annoyed. It was one thing to miss band practice because she was saving lives, but to miss the band meeting when it was in her own damn house was too much.

She gave Glory one last kiss before heading upstairs to Gwen's room to bang on her door.

"Wake up sleepy head, you're late for band meeting."

When no answer came, she decided to open the door.

She jumped back with a shriek. Inside there must have been a few hundred, no probably closer to ten thousand, spiders. Some of them were dead, lying upside down with their legs curled in, others were still moving about, they were even some on Gwen.

She slammed the door shut.

"Is there a problem?" Captain Stacey was charging up the stairs, with his service gun in hand.

"No! No, no no no. Everything's fine. Let me just..." She opened the door, careful not to show the inside to him, and got inside.

Closing the door behind her she turned to once again see the room full of spiders. She moved closer to Gwen careful not to step on any of the millions of giant spiders crawling on the floor. Nop nop nop.

She couldn't take it, it was too gross and creepy, but she was sure these weren't normal spiders. For one: there weren't any spiders that big in the US, let alone New York, at least none she'd ever heard of, for another: they were in Ghost-Spider's room so odds were it had something to do with Gwen's super-heroics.

She poked her friend on the least spider-covered part, her left shoulder. "Wake up!"

Gwen shot up, and if she hadn't known any better she could have sworn Gwen's black top had loved on it's own. "Whu?" She looked around.

"Gwen if this is your doing you have to get rid of them fast, your dad's on the other side of your door with his gun!"

"Why does he have his gun out?" Gwen stretched.

"Because I screamed when I saw all of this!" She gestured to all of the spiders.

"Oh." Suddenly every spider in the room moved towards her. They even dragged some of the dead ones along, which was just so wrong, but it got much worse once they touched Gwen and started melting into her! "Everything's fine dad, you can go back down!" Gwen called towards her door with all the energy of someone who was going to bed, not waking up.

"Can you explain what I just saw?" Her mind was not processing this well.

"Sure." Gwen's stomach grumbled. "After breakfast."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a thought but I'm sort of curious if people who haven't read a lot of comics know what parts I've taken from them and what I've just made up.  
> Also I think Betty was a better character in the comics than in the show, but recognize that she's had almost no screan time (or lines) so that's not really based on anything other than her re-design.
> 
> Also, comments are great, so are kudos.
> 
> If you have anything you want me to know (be it a complaint or a comliment) I'd love to hear it, especially if it'll help me improve.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you care, IO edited the previous chapter to include Meg white as one of the (now) two people Captain Stacey thought might be Gwen's hero.

MJ waited impatiently as Gwen gulped down her food. Glory was trying to distract her but all she could think about was how the spiders had melted on Gwen's legs, dissolving into black tendrils that seemed to be absorbed by her skin.

Maybe if it had only been one or two she'd be fine after some mild therapy, but there had been hundreds, thousands, of spiders.

"So do you know why MJ screamed earlier?" Captain Stacey asked in the kitchen. MJ and Glory were on the couch, so she couldn't  _see_ them, but she could  imagine Gwen getting panicked trying to explain that away.

"Eh, probably didn't know just how chaotic I look when I'm sleeping. Like, I'm sure she sleeps like a model in a photo-shoot so seeing a normy must have been a shock."

"Don't lie to me, Gwen. I'm a cop I know when you do." His tone wasn't harsh, he wasn't angry. "Was there someone else in your room? Maybe a boy?"

The sound of Gwen eating stopped. "Just drop it dad. It wasn't anything you need to worry about, okay."

"Alright, sweety."

"I'm going back to bed." Gwen left the kitchen, walking past them on her way to the stairs.

"What?! What about band meeting!" Gwen had promised to explain the spiders after she had gotten breakfast, and MJ needed to know what that had been.

"I'm not gonna sleep, just... Give me a moment then come to my room, we can talk there." She disappeared up to her room and slammed her door shut.

Captain Stacey came up to them, looking at her.

"Did I say something wrong? Was it because I asked if it was a boy before asking if it was a girl?"

Was he asking her if his daughter was gay? "You know I couldn’t answer that question with a ‘yes’, regardless of what I thought, right. "

"Sorry." He looked away.

She sighed. “I don't think that's it, though. There really wasn't anybody else there, and it isn’t anything you need to worry about, so just allow her to keep some secrets."

"Alright." He rubbed his neck. "I'll be in the garage if anybody needs me, have fun you girls."

* * *

"I don't know what Glory has told you."

"Not a thing," MJ said.

"Only that you were fine," Betty added.

"She means after that," MJ said. Betty gave them all a questioning look.

"Okay, I'll cover the basics first then."

Gwen told them about these aliens called Symbiotes, about how they 'bond' with other creatures in a way they consider positive, but which usually ends with them becoming a super-villain, like Venom.

That was when it hit MJ, the spiders had melted into black  tendrils , just like Venom's. Gwen had gotten a Symbiote. MJ wasn’t sure what to feel about that, but Gwen seemed to be fine with it, and Glory who already knew though ti was fine so it  _probably_ was…

She also told them that bond is as much mental, both telepathic and emphatic, as it is physical, and that Symbiotes often had some different abilities, especially the ones who had become lab experiments. She explained how a Symbiote had bonded with Gwendolyn, and how that particular Symbiote mentally bonded more completely than normal, to the point that it became impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

MJ tried to wrap her head around what that meant, tried to understand what that meant for how Gwen experienced the world. She talked about Gwendolyn and Gwenom as though they were different people from her, because she wasn’t like either of them had been before they bonded, but she was also, at the same time, both of them, behaving as her two halves would have wanted.

MJ asked a lot of questions about that before Gwen could finally get around to telling her about the spiders. Not because she wasn’t  _curious_ about the spider thing, even after understanding that they were a part of Gwenom, but because understanding and being able to support Gwen was important enough for her to delay it a bit. 

Well, that and because she was curious about what it was like to be two people in one.

Gwen then explained that she also had some new powers as a result, both the thing with the spiders and camouflage powers. Even the clothes she was wearing was actually just her Symbiote half using her camouflage powers.

She even explained some things about her new powers which might be dangerous if her enemies found out and what it was like to suddenly  _be_ a swarm of spiders.

"So you changed your mind about sticking with Gwen?" Glory asked when Gwen was done talking, putting her hand on Gwen's shoulder. 

"Yeah, it would be hard to explain to George why I suddenly want him to call me something completely different."

"Who's George?" Betty asked from the floor next to MJ, leaning on Gwen's desk.

"Gwendolyn's dad," Gwen answered.

"You call him George now?!" That would be even  _harder_ to explain!

"Not to his  _face_ , but yeah. Just until I figure out how family works for me."

"Well I understand the idea behind it, but isn't it harder to differentiate you this way, I got used to you being a different person by calling you Not-Gwen in my head, but it's easy to forget that you aren't Gwendolyn this way," Glory said.

"I know, but it's the best I could come up with before my team captured me and forced me to pick."

"And you're sure you don't want to tell your dad?" MJ asked.

"I'd be the same as telling him about my super-powers, and I think he might figure out I'm Ghost-Spider after that. So yeah, I'm sure."

* * *

The rest of Gwen's day was uneventful. First she and her friends went to celebrate her return, she payed Glory back the money she borrowed and then they practiced.

After that she had team practice with the Secret Warriors which was in the early afternoon on weekends. Daisy still hadn't found anything on Exile's team and she decided to head home early that day but that didn't stop the team from trying their best to find him, with no success.

She returned home slightly earlier than usual, she would skip patrol but still wanted to catch the Bodega Bandit, he'd robbed the bodega too often without her stopping him. She would have gone there earlier, as soon as she got her powers back really, but she'd been too worried about Murderdock. About him laying a trap for her.

She'd allowed herself to watch her friends whenever they crossed paths, but she hadn't moved with any real pattern, it'd be too easy to lay a trap for her if she did, and the bodega bandit? He was a man of habit, with a strict schedule when it came to crime.

She waited a good ten minutes before he eventually slumped towards the dollar dog.

"Your corn dogs or your life..." She didn't hear him say it, but she saw his mouth move and it's what he always said.

The clerk gave him two corn-dogs which he started eating in the store.

"Are you going to pay for those?" she asked when she entered.

The Bodega Bandit turned around. "Oh. I asked him to put it on my tab. I don't have the energy to rob him today."

So her lipreading might not be very good, but in her defense, he was speaking sluggishly, making it extra hard to read his lips.

"What's going on with you? Where's all your energy gone?"

"I don't know..."

The owner gestured for her to come closer. "He's been like this since last time you were here. You know, when his dog died."

"Oh." She felt more than just a pang of sympathy for him. They weren't friends or anything but they talked with each other every time he robbed the bodega, with the exception of the past two weeks, which was most days. "Hey, how about tomorrow we visit a shelter and see about getting you a new pal?"

He shook his head. "No dog could replace him." Tears started rolling frown his cheek.

"No, no, please don't cry. I'm not talking about replacing Bandito, I know that's not possible, I just thought you could use a new partner. A friend to spend your time with, so you don't have to be alone." 

He hugged her and, despite being uncomfortable, she didn't have the heart to pry him off.

"There there." She patted his back.

* * *

When Gwen was home she sat down next to her dad on the couch and gave him a hug.

"HI dad."

"Welcome home Gwendy." The nickname hurt a bit, reminded her of what she was keeping from him, but she tried not to react. "Today I've been thinking, about what you'll need to do if you really want to join SHIELD. I called some of my friends, including some army veterans to make a workout schedule for you. It’s in your room, on your desk. And I'll have time on most weekends to help you with everything else, if that's what you want."

Gwen didn't know what to say. She  _had_ been serious, and she had hoped that George would help her with the non-fighting parts of the  application tests , but she hadn't expected him to do it so fast.

She hugged him. "Thank you." She wanted to do more, but she didn't know what.

"It'll be though, Gwen. If you're serious about this you might need to stop going to band practice to get fit on time for whatever entrance test they'll ask you to take. Failing that you could go to the police academy first, since they recruit a fair number of their people from our officers."

"Thank you," She repeated. "I'll make sure to study whatever you teach me." She could pretty much disregard the training schedule though, her super-strength and stamina were more than enough for S.H.I.E.L.D., meaning she'd probably have time for the band, but not that much since she still had to practice and work with the Secret Warriors.

"Don't forget about school, they'll want to see you excel in many things."

"I'll... try."

* * *

The next day she spent almost ten hours with George, five in the morning and five in the evening, just going over all the things she'd need to learn and getting some lessons in detective work. It was fun, a challenge she wasn't used to but still had enough skill in to not feel completely useless at.

In between studying She visited the Bodega Bandit.. He insisted that he didn’t want a dog but she managed to convince him to go to a pet shop with her and after an hour they left with a new friend for him, a hamster.

She made sure to tell him that hamsters aren’t fit for crimes, or guard duty outside which is what Bandito’s job had always been, but he’d probably still rob the Dollar Dog and  Pine Cone would almost certainly come with him.

After that she had practice with the Secret Warriors and her band before returning home to study some more.

* * *

On Monday Gwen asked for urgent backup at the police station, 10th  precinct to be precise. She shouldn't  _be_ there, should be in school, in fact the tracker she’d planted on Gwen placed her close to her school, so Daisy didn't know  _what_ to think. She decided to still respond to it.

When she and Patriot arrived only America was there and there wasn't any emergency in sight.

"Do you have a clue of why we're here?" America asked.

"No," she answered. "And I don't like the fact that I can't see Ghost-Spider anywhere near here."

"Don't worry about that chika." America pointed behind her and she just barely saw Gwen swing by, heading west.

"Let's follow her," she said.

"Coming in hot," Doreen's voice said over their comms, just before she, Ms. Marvel, Inferno, and Lockjaw materialized about two meters ahead of them.

"This way," Patriot said as they ran past the group.

"Can somebody tell me where we are going and why did Ghost-Spider ask us to come here?" Ms. Marvel asked. 

"We'll find out soon." Daisy had a bad gut-feeling about it. She hadn't realized at first but when they passed the building there was no mistaking it, they were at Captain Stacey's precinct.

America pulled her and Ms. Marvel along with her, and Squirrel girl hitched a ride with Patriot as they chased after their team mate.

There was a crash from somewhere to their left and Ghost-Spider abruptly changed direction. Just two turns later they saw two Avengers, Black Widow and Captain America, fighting the Wrecking Grew.

Ghost-Spider wasted no time engaging trying to web down Thunderball's arms.

"We appreciate the help," Cap threw his shield, "but these guys are dangerous. keeping civilians away is a better use of your time."

Patriot was the next to engage, teaming up with his mentor which, by the looks of it, was fine with Patriot assisting them. Ghost-Spider, on the other hand, was likely to get in the way of the Avengers, but it didn't look like she was going to back down.

"America, you're with Ghost-Spider. Focus on Thunderball, try to separate him from his team, and leave the rest to the Avengers."

"On it." America flew over to where Ghost-Spider was struggling against her opponent. Their powers weren't much stronger than Gwen's, but they had an edge both experience wise and strength wise.

"Everybody else, help civilians evacuate and keep them from getting too close."

Daisy herself observed the situation for a bit, got a sense of how things were going. Patriot worked well with Cap, as you'd expect, and was following his lead. Together with Black Widow it looked like they'd beat the Wrecker and Bulldozer. 

As for Ghost-Spider and America, the battle wasn't going  _as_ well but unless things changed drastically they'd  definitely hold him off until the others won their battle. She briefly considered joining the  fray , or subbing out America for herself, but she decided against it because of how her powers might affect Ghost-Spider.

She turned to go help the rest of her team with the civilians.

* * *

By the time the Avengers’ backup, namely Thor and Iron Man, arrived the battle was mostly over already. They quickly subdued all three of them and Ghost-Spider webbed them up.

Patriot relaxed but Ghost-Spider didn't. "How long is the Wreckers range?" she asked Black Widow.

"It should be about two blocks, why?"

Ghost-Spider breathed a relieved sigh. "Thank god. M-" She stopped herself.

"What's the matter Ghost-Spider?" He asked.

She jogged up to him. Too close, he tensed. "Piledriver's locked in the station. He's de-powered now but if he manages to recharge he could get out, they need to make sure that doesn't happen."

"How do you know that?"

" Gwendolyn's dad told me."  _So that's why she didn't just tell the Avengers, she's not supposed to know._ "According to him the power dampeners aren't st r ong enough to guarantee that he won't be able to get out, and if he does he could destroy the whole building.

"You  _have to_ make sure they keep the Wrecker away."

"You're worried for your dad. So that's why you called us here." Quake said.

Ghost-Spider jumped away. "Quake!"

"Yeees?"

"Nothing, just, don't suddenly appear like that, please. Think of my poor heart." Ghost-Spider  over-dramatized the last bit, posing with the back of her left hand at her forehead and her right hand balled over her heart. 

"You get jump scared despite your spidey-sense?" Patriot asked.

"No, but that doesn't mean my heart can take  _Quake_ suddenly being really close to me." She continued in almost a whisper, "Remember that I have a crush on you..."

"I remember," Daisy said, "but that doesn't mean I won't tease you about it.

"And you don’t need to worry about the wreckers range, Ghost-Spider. It takes hours, not minutes, to recharge without direct physical contact so as long as they don’t put him in the same building as the Wrecker, which the avengers usually don’t, Piledriver won’t recharge."

* * *

Once she was back in school Gwen rushed over to her friends.

"I've made a huge mistake." They were between classes, she'd missed almost the whole of third period but that didn't matter.

"What's up Gwen?" Glory asked.

"Alright, so I haven't gotten around to tell you yet but I have a crush. On my manager at work."

"You mean... Am I the only straight person in the band?!"

"Don't worry Betty, we can keep you as a token straight girl," Gwen said with a smile. "And for the record I'm not sure if I'm a lesbian, or bi, or what, but that's beside the point.

"Point is, I sort of had to tell everyone at work because of what happened last week, and apparently she likes to tease me about it!"

"Has she at least taken you out on a date yet?" MJ asked.

"No, and I don't think she will either. Not sure if she even trust me yet, or  bought the fact that I have a crush on her, for that matter. Come to think about it, I don't think she did it on purpose at first either, but she defin i tely laughed at my reaction."

"Well I'm sure she believes you now, if that makes it any better." Glory rubbed her back. "And with a bit of luck she's considering her response to your feelings right now."

"And if you're really lucky I'll be the only single band member by the time we enter collage together."

Gwen smiled. It  felt good to have their support, to have friends she could tell everything without having to worry that they'd see her as a villain. To be fair that might in part be because if she  _was_ one  there'd be nothing they could do to stop her, but she didn't feel any less loved because of that.

The bell rang, marking the start of the next period, so they made their way to class.

"Oh, and just a heads up but I might not go to music collage with you guys."

"Wait what!" MJ grabbed her wrist, pulling her back. "What do you mean you won't go to music collage? Are you quitting the band or are you just not serious about making it as a pro."

"I... I am serious about music, and I'd love it if the Mary Janes went pro, it's just I also have other things going on, like my  _job_ . I was thinking of  taking classes to get better at that for now and keep  practicing in my spare time. It's not like every grate drummer went to music school, and I might still have  _some_ time for drumming lessons."

MJ put her arm around her shoulder. "So what? You signing up for the young Avengers now?" she whispered.

"I was actually thinking of S.H.I.E.L.D. I could even use the Mary Janes as a cover while on missions for them. Wouldn't be the first time someone's done that."

* * *

When they got back, Daisy and Rayshaun sat down on the couch.

"So what do you think, can we trust her?"

"I don't know," He said. "I think it's good if we stay weary for a bit longer, at least two weeks, before completely dropping our guards."

"But her concern for her dad seemed pretty real. Not sure how she knew they'd attack but she must have rushed to get there from school so fast."

"Assuming she requested backup the moment she left, sure, but aren't we assuming a bit too much here?"

"Actually we aren’t. I put a tracker in her Secret Warriors emblem before I gave it back to her, and according to that tracker she had been at school when she asked for backup. " It made her feel dirty for saying it  out loud but it helped clear  suspicion.

"And what if she found it?"

Daisy went to the computer to check the tracker data. "Then the tracker still somehow moved from the school to the police station faster than she'd normally move while web-slinging."

"I'm still not convinced."

"Good." It didn't feel good. She sighed. "I agree that it's for the best if we keep our guards up for a couple of weeks, but mine's already slipping." She slumped down on the couch again. "It's just... She acts like Gwendolyn would most of the time, and she seems to care about the same things."

"And then suddenly she attacks Iron Heart and you don't recognize her at all."

"Right! That was  _so_ unlike her. Back when she was wanted for murder she never attacked people just for coming after her, even when it was S.H.I.E.L.D. or superheroes, not like that." 

She silently thanked Rayshaun for getting her guard up again but she knew it wouldn't last, she'd treat 'Gwen' like her story was true whether she wanted to or not, and that meant confronting the fact that Gwen had told her she had a crush on her.

* * *

Gwen made a web hammock for herself then let go of the roof, falling into it. Daisy had clearly avoided her in the afternoon on Monday and she'd barely seen her on Tuesday.

"What's up Gwen?" Kamala asked.

"Hrmmm." she didn't really want to talk about it.

"You seem pretty down for someone attached to the roof," Doreen said.

"Can we talk about something else? Like how is it going between you and Dante, Kamala?"

"What? I really have no idea what you're talking about." Kamala, whose face had grown red, wasn't looking at her and she let out several nervous laughs which told Gwen that she was the worst lier in their friend circle.

"Right. Sorry, I must have been thinking about someone else. How about you Doreen. Got any romance going on? or some interesting computer geek stuff to talk about?"

"No romance right now, but plenty of computer science-ing. Nothing you're likely to find interesting though."

Gwen wanted to leave, wanted to go home to her bed. She also wanted to barge in to the opps room and confront Daisy.

She did nothing.

"Hey," Doreen said, "I'm sure Dai-" Kamala hit her. "I'mean I'm sure your day will get better."

Suddenly her phone let out a sound ~Ready, set, time to be a fighter~, it was the sound she’d set as her  alert for when a backup request was made by one of them.

Both she and her friends were checking their phones before her feet touched ground, which was about the same time Daisy came running from the opps room.

"Exile just teleported, let's hurry."

Riri was at her university, Rayshaun was meeting up with some S.H.I.E.L.D. friends, and Lockjaw was in Attilan, the inhuman palace, but other than that they were all somewhere in the base. The elevator came down and America flew in before it was all the way down, and Dante was coming from the training room. If they wanted to have any chance of capturing Exile they'd need to act  _fast_ .

Lockjaw teleported into the room.

* * *

They appeared in a white, clean hallway. There were doors on either side of them, with more down the hall, and nothing indicating where Exile had gone.

Shots were fired not too far away, so correction: almost nothing. They chased the sound of fighting.

Dante flew ahead of the others as he quickly made his way to the bad-guys. Flying indoors had the unfortunate effect of activating sprinklers, but it was worth it for the speed boost it gave him. When the sounds got close he slowed down, not wanting to catch any stray bullets.

He when he looked around the corner he saw Furball and Chains advancing on armed men, who were retreating slowly while spraying bullets.

"I only see Furball and Chains here." Dante looked behind him to see that his team was further behind him than he’d thought. 

America was giving a lift to Daisy and Doreen, and Kamala and Gwen were riding Lockjaw, so they shouldn’t have been  _that_ much slower than him. 

Gwen looked off to the side "Someone's over there as well, and by the looks of things they're about to make a huge mess."

"That would be either Exile or Fume." Daisy said. "Inferno, Squirrel Girl, check it out. If it’s Fume you stay on him. Try to burn the fumes before he gets a chance to spread them."

"On it." Doreen said then ran off. He followed her.

Fume’s fumes were both noxious and explosive, which would be how he could cause massive destruction. He could also control them, move them to specific areas while avoiding any allies so Dante couldn’t just ignite it carelessly when they got close the Fume.

They didn't get far down the hallway before they both heard and felt a huge explosion.

"Well at least we know it's Fume now," Doreen said.

"Sure, but that means we should hurry even more right? Before he releases more fumes."

"Fine, go for it, but you really should use your flying more sparingly indoors."

"Why?"

"Have you  _looked_ behind yourself? Not only are you scorching every wall and roof, you're also  making it heard for us to follow close behind you.”

"Alright. Let me pass?"

Doreen turned around when he stopped flying, and he started up again the moment they had passed each other.

He turned a corner and saw the wreckage from the explosion, flew through to see Furball fighting America.

* * *

When Squirrel Girl and Inferno left, Daisy turned to the rest of her team. 

"America, you and Ms. Marvel are on Furball for now, if we find Exile you go after him." 

They charged their enemy, not waiting to figure out who was going for chains. Normally that would be poor tactics, giving away their presence before they have a completed assault plan but Furball and Chains had reached the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and they weren't going easy on them.

"Ghost spider-" Daisy started before she was interrupted.

"Sheath is mine."

"I was going to suggest you taking Chains, your powers would be the most effective against him." 

Around the corner Ms. Marvel was taking on Chains while America attacked Furball.

"You  _know_ why I have to go after her," Ghost-Spider said.

She sighed. "Fine. Go, and take Lockjaw with you. But if you find someone else, you tell us."

"Thanks." Ghost-Spider grabbed onto the giant bulldog before being teleported away, probably at random before one of them caught Sheath's scent.

Before Daisy had rounded the corner, to either tag out Ms. Marvel or help America, the wall exploded.

Daisy staggered but managed to stay on her feet. The first thing she noticed, beside the collapsing roof and collapsed wall was Ms. Marvel who looked like she'd been hurt by the explosion, but from her movements it probably looked a lot worse than it was. 

Both Furball and America seemed to have barely noticed the explosion and Chains was wrapped up by Ms. Marvel so he was fine. 

She hadn't expected Ms. Marvel to be so effective against Chains, she hadn't been the last time they fought as his darkforce chains managed to keep the young heroine at a distance.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were the only people not in the fight, either from the blast or because of Furball and Chains, and it didn't look like they'd be getting up any time soon.

The roof fell in on itself a bit and she hurried to try to stabilize it, but while she was occupied with trying to not get crushed under ruble Fumes noxious gasses started spreading through the hole which risked to incapacitate all three of them.

Most of the time their game plan when fighting someone with an area effect power would be to send in America, since her toughness rendered almost every attack ineffective, but even she wouldn't be able to stand the noxious fumes for long and she was too occupied with Furball to try knocking Fume out before that became an issue.

She controlled the collapse with her powers slowly pushing the structure to a more stable position when Fume poked his head through the hole. If her powers were terrakinesis, controlling rocks, or even if the structure was just slightly different she'd have dropped some of the collapsing structure on him, hoping it would knock him out. 

Sadly the only way she could do that was with a rock big enough to kill him if it landed poorly so all she could do was to keep working as he spread his fumes towards them, while avoiding Furball and Chains.

She could feel her head starting to hurt and her vision blurred slightly, must have been worse for Ms. Marvel and America but it was already hampering her ability to stabilize the building.

"Get away from the fumes!" Dante called out to them.

America might be able to take it, but none of the other heroes, could. It also risked hurting the villains and any S.H.I.E.L.D. agents close by, like the collapsed ones.

She stopped trying to stabilize and instead made walls to protect herself and the agents while America pulled a stretched out Ms. Marvel back to her wall. Fumes moved the gasses further away from his teammates and when she judged it safe she called back to Inferno.

"Now Inferno."

Fire shot through the hole and spread throughout the room along with a  shock-wave that blowed through even  _her_ wall. America did her best to shield them even as the fire burned her jacket.

Her ears were ringing for a bit but she could hear that someone was talking. Fumes was calling out, but not to Chains and Furball who both were getting to their feet, he had his hand to his ear, he was calling out to the rest of his team.

Exile appeared.

With most of the floor above them collapsed he had enough room to activate his darkforce form, growing to about half the size they fought when they first arrested him.

"Chains, go back up Sheath. The rest of us will hold them off."

Chains did as Exile had ordered, lumbering further along the way they had been going.

"Lockjaw, bring Ghost-Spider back to us, we know where Sheath is." She said into their communicators.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Constructive criticism is always appreciated, and hearing your favorite part would be great, but all comments are a delight.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope ya'll enjoyed, kudos and especially comments are very apreciated.
> 
> Special thanks to KoryStarr & So_u_like_pkmn, for being the ony other people to have written for this ship. I've read them all because I'm adicted to Ghost-Spider and Ghost-Spider fics


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